The New Daughter
by bookworm125
Summary: Gibbs has a daughter he doesn't know about. Her mom just died and she is suddenly thrust into the world of Gibbs. How will Gibbs handle a teenager who wants nothing to do with him and how will she get along in DC?
1. Chapter 1

**Alright guys, I know I shouldn't be starting yet another story, but I've decided to go ahead and focus on this one and one of my Grey's ones. Hopefully you like this chapter and continue to read. I'm working on chapter 2 right now, but I'm not sure when it will be up. SO PLEASE review and let me know what you think **

Amelia Grace Covington sat by herself in a private room at Mount Sinai Hospital, wishing someone could turn back time and start the day over. The day had started out normally enough, wake up, go to school, and come home from school. That evening though they had a benefit to go to, not that there was anything new about that, but the events that happened after the event were life changing. Her stepfather had insisted on driving the family himself, rather than their normal driver. On the way home from the benefit a drunk driver blew through a red light and slammed into the passenger side of the car. Her mother had died upon impact and her step father was thrown through the windshield as he had not had his seatbelt on. He was taken to the hospital and rushed into emergency surgery but never made it off the table. Somehow Amelia managed to survive and escape the car without much damage. She had a concussion and some cuts and bruises but other than that she was just fine, health wise anyway. Mentally she was shutting down, she may not have been close to her parents but it was still a horrible feeling, knowing they would never be with her again. Aside from her brother she was all alone in the world, and only fifteen. What would happen to her now, she wondered. Would she be placed in foster care? Where would she live? What about her school? She was broken from her thoughts by the sound of the door opening followed by the voice of her brother,

"Mia?" he said softly. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and before she could even say anything he was sitting with her on the bed, holding her tightly in his arms, "I'm so glad you're ok!" he told her.

"It was horrible," she whispered into his chest.

"I know Mia, I know," he said soothingly, rubbing circles on her back gently. Neither of them said anything else, not knowing which words were the right ones. Eventually Amelia fell asleep and Mathew continued to hold her and rub her back. About twenty minutes after Amelia fell asleep a doctor and another woman walked in.

"Hello," said the doctor, "I'm Dr. Williams, are you family?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm Amelia's brother."

"Well I am very sorry for your loss, especially for Amelia, losing her parents at such a young age. This is Angela Ryans, she works for Family services and has been assigned to Amelia's case."

"What case?" Mathew asked, confused.

"Well she has no parents now; we have to find her someone to live with."

"Can't she live with me?"

"We will have to see. We have to do an evaluation and home study and figure out if you are suited to raise a teenager."

"But she's my sister, where else would she go?"

"We would place her with a foster family. Or from my understanding she has a father out there somewhere, perhaps we could contact him and he would be willing to take her." Mathew was in shock. He knew that they would never allow him to have custody of Amelia. He had a history of drinking and drugs and getting into trouble, no one was going to give him a fifteen year old.

The doctor had released Amelia the next day and she had immediately been placed into a foster home. As soon as she had stepped foot in the door she disliked the place. For one thing there were kids of all ages running around everywhere and all of them seemed to be screaming or crying. The husband and wife who owned the house didn't seem to care what the kids were doing and simply locked themselves in their bedroom unless they needed to come out to yell at someone. It had been three days now since her parents had died and she had been in the foster home and today was the funeral. She dressed in the black dress her brother had picked up for her with black tights underneath and black shoes. Her brother was dressed in a black suit and together they made their way to the church where the service was being held. The funeral seemed to pass by in a blur and soon enough they were watching as the two caskets were being lowered into the ground.

Amelia was now in her own bedroom again, sitting on the bed with her closest friend who had come to support her. There was a wake going on and she knew she should be out there to talk with people but she couldn't bring herself to leave the safety of her bedroom yet. There was a knock on the door and Miss Ryans stepped into the room.

"Amelia, I have someone for you to meet," she said.

"I don't want to see anyone right now," Amelia told her quietly.

"He's flown in especially to see you Amelia; you need to come with me." She said sternly. Amelia sighed and rolled her eyes, but got up off the bed and followed Angela to her father's study. She paused at the door, she had only been in here once and other than that she was not allowed in there. "Come on," Angela prompted. Amelia took a deep breath and stepped into the room. It was just as she remembered it the first and last time she was in there. It was well lit but seemed to be musty. In the corner was a man. He had grey hair but stood tall and looked slightly intimidating, though Amelia would never let him know that.

"Amelia, this is Leroy Jethro Gibbs," Angela told her. Amelia was confused,

"Ok, did you know my dad or something?" she asked. The man shook his head,

"No, I knew your mom."

"Oh," she said shortly, still incredibly confused. Angela spoke up again,

"Amelia, while I was searching your background to find if you had any family to live with I came across the fact that Richard was not your real father,"

"I know that already," she said bluntly.

"Yes well, I did some more researching and found that Mr. Gibbs is your father. I had a judge sign off on the paperwork and you will be living with him, starting immediately." Amelia starred at Angela and the man who was supposedly her father. Then without saying a word she turned and walked out of the room. She ignored everyone and made her way out of the apartment completely. She took the stairs up to the roof and walked to the edge. It was the middle of winter and she was up here without a coat so she was freezing, but the few times when her mother actually spent quality time with her when she was younger they came up to the roof, and that was where she wanted to be right now. After about five minutes of alone time she heard the door open. She didn't turn around and the person walked closer, wrapping a coat around her shoulders.

"Thanks," she said softly.

"You're welcome," the voice said, it turned out to be Gibbs.

"How'd you find me up here?" she asked, starring out at the city.

"Your brother told me where you were. Thought I'd come talk to you, see how you were doing."

"Well I'm just peachy, so you can go away" she said sarcastically.

"I know you're having a hard time right now, but I want you to know that you can talk to me if you need to."

"I don't even know you," she said accusingly.

"I know, and I wish you did. I would have loved to know you sooner. I really wish your mom had told me that she was pregnant."

"Yeah well, mom couldn't do anything that didn't revolve around planning a party or some kind of event," she said meanly. "Why do I have to live with you, why can't I live with Matt?"

"The judge decided that you will be better off living with me," he told her. "We can pack your stuff up tomorrow and ship it all to my house."

"Do you live in Manhattan?" she asked. Gibbs took a deep breath; he knew the young girl standing in front of him wouldn't like what he had to say next,

"No, Amelia I live in DC." He said. Amelia's jaw dropped in shock,

"Excuse me?! You did not just tell me that you live in freaking Washington DC! How can you expect me to move to a completely different state! Especially after my parents just…especially after what just happened! I don't want to move! I want to stay right here in New York and never leave. I 'm not going anywhere!" she yelled before storming off back into the building. Gibbs stood there a little shocked, he had dealt with many things in his life, but suddenly being in charge of a fifteen year old was new to him, and honestly, he was a little worried…though he would never let anyone else know that.

**So how was it? Reviews please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**OK, so it's slightly long, but I think it works. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter! And also those who favorited and alerted! You all are awesome! But if you could review this chapter and let me know what you think that would be great! I should have the next chapter up within the next few days and that one should be their trip back to DC. Hope you enjoy!**

Amelia stormed through the apartment and into her bedroom where her best friend, Marissa was still sitting on her bed. Groaning, she threw herself on the bed and buried her face in the pillow.

"I hate my life," she mumbled. Marissa looked at Amelia,

"You know, it's a good thing I'm your best friend and I can practically read your mind, because no one else would have understood what you just said. So why do you hate your life? I mean, besides the obvious, who did that bitch want to introduce you to?" she asked. Amelia had instantly decided that she hated Miss Ryans, and being the best friend that she is, Marissa hated her too, even if she had never really met the woman. Amelia rolled over and looked at her friend,

"My dad," she said quietly.

"What? For real?"

"Of course for real, why would I make that up?" Marissa shrugged,

"So, why do you hate your life?"

"Because that stupid woman already decided that I was going to go live with him. She never even asked me!"

"Ok, but that's good isn't it? If you live with your dad then you don't have to go into foster care."

"You would think that, but the man doesn't even live in Manhattan!" Marissa looked shocked,

"What? Then how are you supposed to live with him? Where does he even live?"

"Washington DC," Amelia said flatly.

"No! No, no, no, no, no! That does not work for me! You can NOT move to freaking Washington DC! Is this guy crazy?"

"He must be! And Miss Ryans too, that's the only thing that would explain why they think I'm moving to DC."

"Well you're not! There's no way I'm letting you leave! You can move in with me! My parents won't even notice."

"That sounds perfect. I'll pack a bag and we can go right now," Amelia said seriously. She stood up off her bed and pulled a spare bag out of the closet. She began throwing various items of clothing and other random things she might need into the bag. Ten minutes later she had enough stuff packed to last her a week. Grabbing her coat off the back of the desk chair she turned to face her friend,

"Alright, let's go." The two girls pulled on their boots and walked to one of the windows, which opened onto a fire escape. They quickly made their way down to the ground and hailed a cab without anyone realizing they had even left the apartment. After having the cab driver drop them off at Marissa's house they made their way inside.

Back at the wake Gibbs had gone back inside after trying to talk with Amelia and found Miss Ryans.

"So how did it go?" she asked. Judging from the look on his face it had not gone well.

"She freaked out when I told her that I don't live here, that she would have to move to DC. She started ranting and then stormed back inside. I assume she went back to her room," he told the social worker who sighed in response and rubbed her forehead a little. She could tell from the moment she met her that Amelia was going to be a difficult case and so far she had been proven right.

"I'll go talk to her. Maybe her brother can help get her used to the idea." Gibbs nodded and watched as the woman walked off towards the stairs before going to get something to drink. He could tell that Amelia was not going to take moving to DC well and he was prepared for the long road ahead but he sure was not looking forward to it. Sooner than he expected Miss Ryans walked back into the room and made her way back to him,

"Are you sure she came back in here?" she asked him worriedly while looking around at all the people in the room. HE was confused,

"Of course she did, why? What's wrong?" He didn't know why but he was suddenly very worried.

"She's not up in her room, and I don't see her down here. I don't know where she could have gone." Gibbs didn't say anything but rushed up the stairs to his daughter's bedroom. He stopped for a moment and looked around; he knew he could tell a lot about Amelia by the things in her bedroom. It was incredibly clean and neat, everything seemed to have a place and nothing was cluttered. The bed was made although it was a little messy, as though it had been sat or laid upon recently. He looked at all of the pictures she had on the walls and various surfaces. There were pictures of her at all ages with family and friends. He found himself starring at the one next to her bed the longest; it was of Amelia as a newborn being held by her mother in the hospital. She couldn't have been more than a few hours old in this picture and Gibbs found himself wishing he had known of his daughter back then. He looked at the picture a moment longer until Miss Ryans came in the room, followed by Amelia's older brother, Matt.

"She's nowhere downstairs," she informed him, "And she's not answering her cell phone." Gibbs looked around carefully, he noticed that the closet door was open and there were several empty hangers right up front. Another glance around the room and the window caught his eye; he walked over and pushed the window, looking at the fire escape.

"She ran away," he told the other two adults in the room. Miss Ryans looked shocked but Matt simply smiled.

"Well we have to call the police, we have to find her!" Miss Ryans said, panicking.

"Unless you know where she is," Gibbs said, looking at Matt who shrugged in response.

"No idea," he said, not wanting to help these people who were going to take his little sister away from him. Gibbs sighed,

"Look, if you know where she is you need to tell us. We can't just let her be running around the city all night. Who knows what could happen."

"I doubt she's running around the city," Matt told them, knowing his sister would not want to be out in the cold all night. Gibbs glared at him for his lack of help then pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

"McGee, yeah, I need you to run GPS on a cellphone for me," he said into the phone before quickly telling the phone number. He waited a little bit then hung up the phone, "Got her," he said, leaving the room and heading to the front door, Miss Ryans and Matt following closely behind.

Meanwhile Amelia and Marissa were hanging around in the kitchen and gossiping about what was going on at school. Amelia had ignored her phone the multiple times that it rang and eventually just put it on silent. The two had ordered a pizza since neither one could really cook, so when the doorbell rang Amelia went to answer it while Marissa went to get the money.

"Pizza!" She sung out as she threw the door open. Her smile faded when she saw who was really standing there. Before anyone could say anything she slammed the door shut again, just as Marissa was coming around the corner.

"What the hell Amy?" she asked accusingly. Not giving Amelia time to answer Marissa opened the door again, expecting the pizza guy,

"Sorry about that, my friend is a little crazy," she said, stopping when she saw who was at the door, "Oh, I get it now," she told Amelia apologetically.

"Yeah." Without waiting for an invitation Gibbs walked into the house and the other two followed.

"How did you find me here?" Amelia asked angrily, looking at her brother and thinking that he had told where she was. He held his hands up defensively,

"Wasn't me, I swear. The dude's got some ninja who ran a trace on your phone."

"What! So you basically stalked me! That's so illegal!"

"Not when I'm a federal agent and I'm your father," he told her, "Get your stuff, it's time to go." Amelia stood still,

"It's funny how you think I'm going to listen to you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. Gibbs raised his eyebrows, he had taken down serial killers and murders, but now he couldn't get the fifteen year old standing in front of him to listen. He took a deep breath then spoke calmly,

"I want you to go get your stuff and then we are going to leave."

"And I want you to leave," she told him, still not moving. Gibbs glared at the stubborn fifteen-year old,

"Amelia, please go get your things," Miss Ryans said politely.

"Screw you," Amelia said rudely, rolling her eyes.

"Apologize," Gibbs said firmly. Amelia looked at him, shocked,

"What?"

"Apologize, now. You are not going to be rude to the people who are trying to help you."

"You think this is helping me? You think that tearing me out of my home, away from all of my friends and everything I've ever known is helping me?" she asked incredulously, "Well think again, because this is NOT helping me. I hate it and I hate you and Miss Ryans. SO you can both just go to hell!" she yelled, once again storming up the stairs.

_She sure does have a flair for the dramatics, _Gibbs thought to himself. Marissa went to follow her best friend but Gibbs stopped her, wanting to go himself,

"I'll go talk to her," he said.

"Oh yeah, cause that worked sooo well the last time," Marissa said sarcastically. Gibbs ignored the comment and went upstairs; finding the room Amelia was in. She was sitting on the window seat, looking out over the city.

"Did you seriously follow me up here?" she asked when she saw him walk into the room. Gibbs sat next to her, "I'm not going with you," she told him yet again.

"But you are Amelia. I know that you don't want to. And I know that you think you hate me for making you move, but it's what's best for you. Either you stay with me or you go into foster care, and I really don't think you want to do that," he said calmly.

"Why can't I stay with my brother? He's not really that bad," she told him, defending her older brother. Gibbs sighed,

"You only know one side of him Amelia; you know the side he wants you to know. He's not capable of taking care of you and he knows it. He wants you to have the best chance possible and the only way you are going to get that is if you move with me."

"That's kind of cocky," she tells him, rolling her eyes.

"Well it's the truth. So now you are going to get your things, go downstairs and apologize to Miss Ryans, then we are going to go back to your house. We will stay here for a few days, but we need to leave sooner rather than later. So let's go," he told her sternly, standing up and expecting her to follow. She stood up and grabbed her bag,

"I'm not happy about this," she told him, walking out of the room.

"Oh, I know," he said in the empty room. He could tell that the next few months were not going to be fun.

**So how was it? Let me know what you thought! Or maybe how you think Amelia should act once they get back to DC and how Gibbs should handle it. This could go a number of ways, so readers input always help majorly! Can't wait to hear from you!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for all the reviews! You're all awesome! Sorry, I meant to have this up a few days ago. But here it is now; I hope that you enjoy it! Hopefully it won't be too long for the next update, but I'm going back to work tomorrow and Jan is going to be a super busy month for me, so it might take a little longer. So I apologize in advance. **

**Leave a review and let me know what you think! **

The ride back to Amelia's home was a quiet one filled with tension. Amelia made it obvious that she wasn't happy and Gibbs didn't know what to say. He knew that he couldn't let her get away with being a brat, especially if he ever wanted her to listen to him and respect him, however after all she had been through in the past five days he wasn't sure how to proceed. They arrived back at the apartment building and Amelia left the car and reached the elevator before the others. Her brother followed quickly with Gibbs and Miss Ryans slightly behind them. In the elevator Amelia leaned up against her brother, wrapping her arm around his and laying her head on his shoulder. Gibbs smiled sadly, he obviously loved his little sister very much, but the truth was Gibbs did not trust him. He had Tim pull up any history about him and found that he had a past involving drugs, alcohol, and jail, and he did not want Amelia to be exposed to any of that which prompted him to bring her to DC. Of course it didn't hurt that he wanted to get to know his daughter. He had met her mother, Claire; at a bar one night and they had gone home together. He woke up the next morning and she was gone, she hadn't even left a note, and Gibbs had never heard of her again until a few days ago when he got the call from Miss Ryans informing him of his daughter. He had been shocked; to say the least, he never thought that he would have the chance to be a father again after Kelly and Shannon had died and he hadn't hesitated even for a second when the Miss Ryans asked if he would like to consider gaining custody of Amelia.

The elevator opened on their floor and they all stepped out. Amelia made to go to her room but Gibbs stopped her,

"Wait. I think we need to have a talk," he said, looking at Amelia and Matt.

"I don't want to talk," she mumbled.

"Well then you can listen," he said sternly. He had grown tired of her attitude and rudeness in just a few hours and decided that he couldn't let this continue, especially since she would be living with him full time. Amelia rolled her eyes but flopped down onto the couch anyway,

"I'm listening," she said sarcastically, waiting for him to speak.

"Good. Now I know that you aren't happy about having to move to DC with me and I know that it's going to be a big change, but I am not going to accept you having an attitude all the time," Amelia interrupted,

"I don't have an attitude!" she said defensively.

"Yes, you do. You've been rude and disrespectful since I first met you. That's not exactly the best first impression to make. Now as I was saying, I'm not going to put up with it. When you live with me you will be respectful to your elders and you will not run off like you did tonight. There will be rules and you will follow them."

Amelia glared at him but inside she was panicking, she had never had an adult who actually set rules and expected her to follow them. Her mother and stepfather had never seemed to care if she had an attitude and usually just gave her whatever she wanted to fix things. Her parents had also never really seemed to care if she just left the house without telling them and she often left off the fire escape rather than using the front door.

"Fine, can I go to bed now?" she asked, trying not to sound too mean. Gibbs sighed and nodded. It was late and he figure he could talk to her about everything again in the morning. Amelia hugged her brother and he held her tightly for a few seconds, then she went up the stairs without even looking at Gibbs or Miss Ryans. Gibbs sat in silence with the two other adults for a few moments before miss Ryans spoke up,

"Are you sure you want to do this Agent Gibbs? I can understand if you would rather I find a different place for Amelia to stay." Matt looked pissed off at this statement and Gibbs felt slightly angry,

"Of course I do. She is my daughter and I'm not just going to abandon her because she has an attitude. Frankly I'd be worried if she wasn't acting this way, she did just loose her parents."

"Right, ok then. I'll come back tomorrow with the papers you need to sign and then you will be able to take Amelia back to DC with you whenever you would like. Of course a local social worker will be checking in from time to time to make sure that everything is going alright." Gibbs nodded and bid Miss Ryans goodnight before letting her out of the house. After the door closed Gibbs was alone with Matt in the living room,

"So I assume you're not happy with this either?" he asked the twenty year old. Matt shrugged in response,

"No, I'm not. But I know that it's what's best for Amelia. She shouldn't be thrown around in foster care and she can't stay with me. So you're the best option for her right now. I'm not happy that you're taking her out of New York, it's the only place she's ever lived, but there's nothing I can do about that really." Gibbs nodded,

"Well of course you are welcome to visit if you would like, just try to give some notice if you are coming. And maybe we can arrange a few trips for her back here; it will probably be good for her to come back and visit," he told the younger man.

When she had gone up to her room Amelia had intended to go straight to bed and forget about this horrible day, but when she realized that the adults were still downstairs talking she changed her mind. She quickly slipped her boots off, leaving her in just socks, and walked out of the bedroom as quietly as she could, making her way to the stairs. She walked halfway down the stairs without making a sound and sat on one of the steps. From her position she could clearly hear everything that was being said but could not be seen by the other three in the house. She listened carefully when Miss Ryans asked if Gibbs was sure he wanted to go through with everything. She thought for sure he would have said no and would leave, or at least that's what she hoped anyway. She was disappointed that he wasn't giving up on her but at the same time she was pleased to hear that he wasn't just going to throw her to the wolves. She didn't like the fact that a social worker would be checking in on them. It was bad enough that she had to move, she didn't need some stranger poking around in her life.

When Gibbs told Matt that he could visit when he wanted she felt a little bit better. She was worried that moving to DC would cause her to be completely cut off from everything in New York. She had gotten lost in her thoughts and was shaken from them when she heard their footsteps coming towards the stairs. She jumped up and sprinted to her bedroom, closing the door right as Gibbs and her brother were halfway up the stairs. She flipped the light off and dove into bed, pulling the blanket over her body right before the door opened,

"Eavesdropping isn't polite Amelia," Gibbs' voice said through the darkness. Amelia didn't move and the door shut a moment later. She sighed in the darkness and for the first time since the accident she let herself cry, eventually crying herself to sleep.

Amelia walked into the kitchen the next morning a little after ten. She went straight to the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of orange juice before pouring a glass like she did every morning. Normally she was alone in the kitchen in the mornings, so when she turned around and saw Gibbs sitting at the breakfast bar she jumped and nearly dropped the glass she was holding.

"Holy shit," she muttered under her breath.

"Good morning to you too," Gibbs said. She rolled her eyes,

"You scared the crap out of me and all you have to say is Good morning," she said grumpily, slumping into the chair on the other end. Gibbs didn't answer and Amelia rolled her eyes. She stood up again and Gibbs watched her as she messed around the kitchen.

"Do you want breakfast?" she asked. She figured that as long as he was here she might as well make sure he had something to eat.

"No thanks," he said, watching her crack eggs into a pan. She shrugged,

"Whatever." For the next five minutes Gibbs watched as she made herself an omelet. When she sat down and began eating her spoke up again,

"So, we should probably start packing up the house today," he said carefully. Amelia froze for a moment, her fork halfway to her mouth, and then nodded slowly, never once looking at Gibbs. This was the part she was dreading the most, more than moving to DC. By packing up the house it meant that her parents were really gone. They wouldn't be coming back from some trip the next day. Packing up the house made it final, and it scared Amelia to no end. Amelia continued to eat in silence and she soon put her dish in the sink.

"I'm going to go change first, and then we can start," she told him. He nodded and she went upstairs, changing into yoga pants and a long sleeve shirt, pulling her hair up into a messy ponytail, then went downstairs. Gibbs was waiting in the living room and had set up several boxes while she was changing.

"So, everything was left to you and Matt in the will. He said it's fine if we just pack it up and put it in storage."

"Where is Matt anyway?" she asked, knowing he had slept there last night.

"He said he had something to do," Gibbs told her. Amelia sighed, knowing he was probably off somewhere getting high. As much as he loved her he still had to get his fix of drugs each day.

"Ok, I guess that's fine," she said, picking up a few things and putting them in the box nearest her.

While they packed Gibbs tried talking to her but found himself getting one word answers to most of his questions. He eventually gave up trying to talk and they continued to pack in silence. After a few hours they stopped for lunch. They had gotten most of the first floor packed and movers were coming tomorrow to move the furniture into storage. They sat together at the kitchen table eating sandwiches when Matt walked in. As soon as he looked at him Gibbs could tell he had been high not too long ago, if he wasn't still.

"How's it going?" he asked, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. Amelia shrugged,

"Fine. Where have you been?" she asked.

"I had some stuff to do Mia." She didn't answer so Gibbs spoke up,

"While, I guess we should keep on packing," he said as he stood up to put his plate in the sink. He took Amelia's plate of the table and realized she had only eaten a few bites of sandwich. He sighed and threw away the extras then continued upstairs.

**I think by the end of the next chapter they will be back in DC. If there's anything you want to see happen let me know!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Woo hoo! New chapter! Thanks for all the reviews on the last one, you guys are great! I hope you like this one also and leave a review for it. **

**I feel like I'm writing Gibbs a little out of character, if you think I am can you leave me a comment and let me know. Also, if you want to leave any suggestions on how to fix that and get him more in character, please feel free to tell me that too. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!**

Five minutes later Amelia and Matt were standing at the closed doorway of their father's office.

"You go in first," Amelia said, nudging her brother.

"No way, you go first," he said, pushing her in front of him. Gibbs walked around the corner and stopped when he saw them standing there,

"Is there a reason you're not going in?" he asked the pair.

"It's dads office," Matt told him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Gibbs was confused,

"Yes," he said, waiting for them to continue explaining.

"We're not allowed in there. It's practically the only thing that we could get in trouble for," Amelia stated. Gibbs nodded and walked forward, gently pushing through them and opening the door.

"While there's a first time for everything," he said, taking a step in the room and expecting them to follow. Matt and Amelia looked at each other, both thinking that he was crazy, and then followed Gibbs into the room. Amelia found that packing the office was harder than she thought it would be and tried to get through it as quickly as possible. There wasn't much to pack in the room aside from the books that lined the walls and a few knickknacks here and there. Most of the papers in the desk were going to be taken care of by one of their father's colleagues as they were all legal papers and paperwork from his work. When they finally finished the room the trio made their way upstairs, packing the guest rooms first. Finally all that was left was Amelia's room and the master bedroom, which they decided could wait until tomorrow. They ordered take out for dinner then went their separate ways to go to sleep.

Amelia lay in bed that night staring at the celling. This would probably be the last night that she actually got to sleep in her bedroom, the same one she had slept in all of her life. The bedroom had changed over the years as she got older, but as she grew it had seen a light pink nursery for a baby, a princess room when she was obsessed with them as a toddler. Ballerinas came next, as she had loved to dance as a child. At the moment the walls were painted bright yellow with white furniture surrounding the room. She snuggled into her bed even more and pulled the covers tight around her body as the tears welled up in her eyes. Shutting her eyes tight she rolled over in bed, determined not to cry. Not long after she fell asleep, no tears ever falling.

The next morning seemed to come too soon and Amelia did not want to get out of bed, knowing she would not enjoy today. Finally after about ten minutes she threw the covers off and sat up in bed looking around the room. It shouldn't be too hard to pack, she thought to herself. Everything had its place and was organized perfectly, so placing it all in boxes should be easy enough. Sighing she climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom. After a quick shower she made her way downstairs and into the kitchen. Gibbs was sitting at the breakfast bar again but at the place next to him was an omelet that looked much like the one she had made herself the day before. She was slightly confused but sat down next to him and picked up the fork,

"Thanks," she said, not looking at him as she took a bite. Gibbs just nodded and continued drinking his coffee. After she finished eating she placed the plate in the sink and turned to Gibbs, "If it's ok with you, I'd rather pack my bedroom by myself." Gibbs nodded,

"That's fine. Just let me know if you need help with anything," he said understandingly. He knew that the last two rooms would be the hardest for her to pack and he wanted to make it as easy as possible for her, and if that meant she did it herself then so be it.

Amelia made her way upstairs with her arms full of boxes. Opening several of them she went to work on her room. Most of her clothes were packed in several suitcases with her summer clothes packed up in boxes. After her clothes were packed she moved on to the various other things around the room, books, pictures, and everything else were packed up and sealed in boxes to be shipped to DC. After several hours her room was packed and her parent's room was the only one left. Choosing to skip lunch she made her way down the hall and entered her parent's room. She hadn't spent too much time in here growing up, her mother had always been afraid that she would get it dirty when she was a child and she had had no reason to as a teen, except of course when she was stealing her mother's clothes. Amelia looked around the room for a moment then sat on the edge of the bed; it was the first time she had been in the room since the accident. She felt tears come to her eyes as it hit her that they would never be in this room again, they would never walk through the front door or eat in the kitchen. The past few days she had been on autopilot, trying not to think too much and ignoring the reality of the situation. But now it was hitting her full force and she felt like she might die as well. Swallowing the tears and hurt she stood up, blinking to make sure she wasn't about to cry, and then began packing the room. When she went through the closet she put aside most of her mother's clothes, specifically the ones she knew that fit her. Surely her mother wouldn't mind and it would be nice to have something of hers. She also kept most of the jewelry out, knowing it would not be good for it to be sitting in storage. She moved from the bedroom into the bathroom and continued packing things in there.

It was dark outside when Amelia finally came downstairs after she had disappeared after breakfast. As she walked through the house she was amazed by how different it looked. All of the furniture and most of the boxes had been taken to the storage facility while she was upstairs and the house was mostly empty now. She once again found Gibbs in the kitchen and she wondered why they always ended up in the kitchen. Shrugging it off she opened the fridge, only to find there was no food in there.

"Um, what about dinner?" she asked. After skipping lunch she was starving and could eat anything right now.

"Chinese?" Gibbs asked, hoping that his daughter wouldn't mind takeout. She shrugged,

"Sure. There's a really good place not too far from here," she told him. Searching for her cell phone she then called the restaurant and placed their order. "It'll be ready in about fifteen minutes. I'll go pick it up," she said as she walked toward the front door, Gibbs followed,

"You're going by yourself?" he asked worriedly.

"Yeah. Why not? I do it all the time."

"Well I don't want you to walk by yourself. It's dark and could be dangerous," he said, thinking of all the cases he'd worked where someone had been harmed or killed while walking alone late at night, "I'd rather come with you." HE was half expecting her to protest.

"Suit yourself," She said as she pulled on boots and her coat. Gibbs did the same then the two of them walked out of the house. For the first few minutes they walked in silence then Amelia spoke up hesitantly,

"So, what am I supposed to call you?" she asked. She had been wondering ever since she met the man. She didn't think she could call him dad but she didn't know how he would feel about the situation. Gibbs thought about it,

"Well, I guess you can call me dad if you want. But I don't want you to feel pressured to; I know it might be hard. I guess you can call me Gibbs, that's what everyone else tends to call me." Amelia nodded,

"Alright, that works." The two of them continued in silence once again until they reached the restaurant. The warm air in the restaurant was a welcome change to the frigid air outside. There were several other customers waiting for their food and some yelling coming from what Gibbs assumed was the kitchen. When they walked in the young man working the cash register looked up, smiling at Amelia,

"Hey Amy!" he greeted happily. Amelia smiled and walked over to the counter,

"Hey Carter, what's going on back there?" She asked, gesturing towards the kitchen.

"Ah, I don't even know anymore. Started out as the usual stuff then escalated into something bigger. But nothing's been broken yet, so that's good I guess. Just might be a little longer for your food to be ready." Amelia nodded,

"Well that's nothing new," she said. The boy smiled at her,

"So how have you been?" he asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset her. Amelia shrugged,

"I'm here, still alive. So good, I guess."

"Right. So Marissa told me that you were moving, to DC." Amelia sighed,

"Yepp. We leave tomorrow," she told him.

"What! That's so soon!"

Gibbs had stayed back by the door when they walked in, letting his daughter visit with her friend and trying not to interrupt, though he had been listening most of the time, trying to figure out who this boy was to his daughter. He was at least three years older than her and Gibbs didn't know what to think of him. He was brought out of his thoughts by his daughter calling his name,

"Gibbs, come here!" he walked over to the counter, "Jeesh, I've said your name like ten times and you didn't answer."

"Sorry, I zoned out a bit. What did you need?"

"I want to introduce you to Carter. Carter, this is Gibbs, my dad," she introduced the two of them. Gibbs held his hand out for Carter to shake and was impressed by the strength of the boys grip. "Carter is Marissa's older brother. I've known him for practically my whole life," she told Gibbs.

"It's nice to meet you sir," Carter said.

"Nice to meet you too Carter." The trio continued to talk while waiting for their food and finally the yelling in the kitchen stopped and they were given their order. As they were paying for their food Marissa walked through the door,

"Mia!" She yelled happily upon seeing her best friend, "I didn't know you were here!"

"Just came to get food. Come eat with us," she said, looking at Gibbs to make sure it was ok for her to come, not that it would have mattered to them very much if he had said no. Gibbs nodded and grabbed the bags of food, following the two girls out of the building. They hooked arms as they walked a little bit in front of Gibbs,

"So do we hate him?" She asked, subtly gesturing to Gibbs. Amelia shrugged,

"I don't know yet. He's not that bad I guess." The two continued to talk the rest of the way back to the apartment and Marissa stayed the rest of the night, the two girls eventually falling asleep around three in the morning.

Gibbs woke them up around seven, wanting to get on the road and back home. He was worried that his team had done something stupid while he was gone and he would come back with a mess to clean up. The two fifteen year olds groaned as they got out of bed and got dressed for the day. They dragged Amelia's last two suitcases downstairs then Gibbs took them out of the car.

"So I guess this is it," Amelia said, facing her best friend with tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, you're really leaving. I've kind of been pretending it wasn't going to happen."

"Me too."

"Promise you'll come back and visit, and that I'll come visit you. And we'll text every day and we can Skype all the time."

"Of course, no matter what." Marissa wrapped her friend in a hug,

"I'm going to miss you," she whispered. Amelia hugged back even tighter,

"I'll miss you more," she said. The two girls pulled apart and looked at each other; both had unshed tears in their eyes, not wanting to cry in front of the other.

"Well, I'll text you later," Marissa said sadly. Amelia nodded and climbed into Gibbs' waiting car, waving to her best friend as he pulled away from the curb. They hadn't even reached the end of the street when Amelia's phone beeped, signaling a text,

_Miss you already! _It said. Amelia smiled and sent back a simple heart smilie, telling her best friend all that she needed to.

**So what did you think? Next chapter they will be in DC and Amelia will eventually meet the team and start school. Once again if you have anything you want to see just leave it in a review or pm me. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok, sorry it took me a few days. I just couldn't find any inspiration to sit down and actually write. And now that I have I am rushing to get this typed and published before I have to leave for work. I hope you like what I've written so far, please leave a review to let me know!**

**When do you think Amelia should meet the team? And how should she react to everyone? What about school? Should she fit in instantly or be a bit of an outcast? Your opinions are like gold to me so let me know what you think!**

**Well I'm off to work, so leave me lots of nice reviews to come home to after a stressful day!**

The car ride from New York to DC was spent mostly in silence. As soon as they had gotten in the car Amelia had plugged her headphones in and turned the music up loud enough to tune out Gibbs. It seemed as though every two seconds her cellphone would chime and her fingers would be flying over the keys. He had tried talking to her a couple, but she had just ignored him and turned the music up even louder. Gibbs was starting to get very frustrated with the fifteen year old sitting in the car next to him but decided to wait until they got home to talk to her about everything.

Finally, after a drive that lasted almost five hours, the car pulled into the driveway of Gibbs' house. Normally he would have made better time, but he held back on his speed some so that he wouldn't scare Amelia. She hadn't said anything, but he could tell as soon as she was in the car, that she was nervous. Every time Gibbs had to make a sudden stop her head would jerk up and she would look around worriedly. Once she realized there was no real danger she went back to her music and cellphone, ignoring the world around her. It made sense, Gibbs thought, she had just been in an accident that killed both of her parents, he would be more worried if she wasn't scared of the situation. When the car was shut off Amelia looked up at the house where she would now be living. It looked like all of the other houses in the neighborhood she had seen as they drove through, and nothing like her home back in New York. She felt a little homesick as she thought of New York, but quickly swallowed the feeling and stood up out of the car. While she had been starring at the house Gibbs had gotten out of the car and pulled her bags out of the trunk. He had grabbed two of the three and began walking towards the house. Amelia grabbed the last suitcase and a backpack she had had in the car and followed Gibbs. He opened the unlocked door and made his way inside, Amelia still following behind. They stopped in the living room and Amelia looked around at her surroundings. Amelia took in the sparsely decorated house. Compared to the lavishly decorated penthouse she was used to living in, the house she was in now seemed tiny and empty. There was an old TV sitting in the corner with a bike propped up in front of it and a couch on the opposite wall. She had to wonder if the TV even worked, let alone got any good channels. From where she was standing she could see the kitchen, which looked just as empty as the living room.

"C'mon, I'll show you your room," Gibbs said, breaking the silence that had fallen. Amelia nodded and followed Gibbs once again. There were four doors at the top of the stairs, Gibbs pointed to the one on the left, "That's my room. The one at the end of the hall is a spare room. That's the bathroom and this one is yours," he told her, opening the first one on the right. She walked inside and flipped on the light switch. The walls were painted a pale yellow and there was a double bed in the corner. A desk was shoved up against one wall and there was another door that led to the closet. A dresser stood next to the closet door.

"You can do whatever you want to it," he told her, "Just let me know if you want to paint it or if you need help moving any furniture or anything." Amelia looked around and nodded,

"Can I just be alone for a little while?" She asked quietly.

"Sure," Gibbs agreed, "I'll just go make some lunch and come get you when it's ready." He set the suitcase next to the door and left the room, closing the door halfway to give her some privacy.

Amelia sighed as she set her backpack down and flopped onto the bed, she really did not want to be here, but she knew there was nothing that could be done about it. At least, not until she turned 18, which was three whole years away.

Gibbs made his way downstairs to the kitchen and began searching through the cabinets, looking for something to make for lunch. He finally came up with a box of pasta and some spaghetti sauce, and after checking the expiration dates, determined they were fine to make for lunch and that he should go grocery shopping, soon. While the pasta was cooking his phone rang, it was DiNozzo calling to tell him they had just gotten a new case. He thought about just putting Tony in charge, but his gut was telling him he needed to be there for this one. He told Tony he would be in the office in a few hours after he took care of some things. He hadn't told the team yet about his daughter, simply because he wanted to keep it to himself and he knew his team tended to blow things out of proportion, but he knew he was going to have to tell them soon, today even. Ten minutes later the pasta was done and he called Amelia down for lunch. She slowly made her way downstairs and sat at the table across from Gibbs. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Gibbs spoke up,

"So I have to go into work for a little while after lunch. Are you going to be ok here on your own or do you want to come with?" he asked.

"I'll just stay here, I have a bunch of unpacking to do," she told him as she took another bite of food. Gibbs nodded,

"Alright that's fine. Just keep your phone on so that I can reach you if I need to. And don't answer the door for anyone, they could be dangerous. And don't go anywhere, you don't know your way around yet and you could get lost," Amelia actually interrupted him,

"I've stayed home alone before Gibbs. And I grew up in New York, I know how to read a map and not get lost," she told him. Gibbs nodded,

"Still, don't go anywhere, ok?"

"Fine," she sighed. It wasn't like there was anywhere she wanted to go anyway, except back to New York. They finished up lunch and Gibbs went around, collecting the things he would need for work. Amelia watched as he grabbed his gun,

"What do you do?" she asked as he clipped it to his belt. Gibbs looked at her and it hit him that she did not even know where he worked.

"I'm an NCIS Agent," he told her. She looked confused,

"NCIS?"

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service. We investigate crimes that have to do with Navy Personnel and their families." Amelia nodded,

"Well I'll see you later," she said dismissively, heading back up the stairs. Gibbs said goodbye then walked out the front door, stopping at the bottom steps of the front porch and heading back to the door, locking it for the first time in years.

The trip to the Navy yard did not take long and Gibbs was soon walking into the squad room where his team was already hard at work. Or at least he thought they were hard at work. As he got closer he realized they were not talking about a case, but about him.

"Why do you think he was in New York Ziva?" Tony asked the Israeli sitting across from him.

"I do not know Tony, but it is none of our business," she told him, sounding frustrated.

"C'mon, don't you want to know?" he asked as Gibbs walked up behind him, whacking him on the head,

"Ziva's right DiNozzo, it's none of your business," he said while walking to his desk.

"Welcome back Boss," Tony said quickly, rubbing the back of his head.

"What's the case?" he asked. The three members of his team quickly jumped into updating him on the current case. It turns out the case was an open and shut one and he could have put DiNozzo in charge after all, but he took the opportunity to gather his team together in Abby's lab.

"Alright, I know you want to know why I went to New York so suddenly, so I'm just going to go ahead and tell you. I have a daughter. Her name is Amelia, she's fifteen years old. Her mom and stepdad just died and I was the only one who could take custody of her or she would be put in foster care," he explained. His team starred at him then all started talking and asking questions at once. He quieted them down then calmly answered a few of their questions, explaining why he was just now getting custody of his daughter and such. They were finally satisfied with his explanation and Abby was currently begging him to let them meet her.

"We will see Abs, when the time is right you can meet her. But she's still adjusting to being here so we need to give her time," he told them. After this he packed up his things and headed home, not wanting Amelia to be alone on her first night in DC.

While Gibbs had gone to work Amelia was laying on the bed in her new room. She had considered unpacking for about two seconds before deciding it wasn't going to happen. She had texted her friends from New York for a while, but there was only so much texting they could do while in school. After getting bored of laying around she decided to explore the rest of the house. She had no desire to go into Gibbs' room so she began in the spare room that was down the hall from hers. After finding just a normal spare room she made her way downstairs. There wasn't much to look at until she found the door to the basement. She flipped on the light and made her way down the stairs and was shocked by the huge boat that was standing in the middle of the room.

"What the hell?" she asked herself as she examined it more closely. It was obvious to her that it was being built by hand and she found that she was very impressed. She had sat on a stool and was staring at the boat, trying to figure out how Gibbs had even built it and how in the world he was going to get it out of the basement. She had lost track of time and was startled when she heard the front door slam shut. She tensed until she heard Gibbs shouting her name. Rather than answer she stayed quiet, waiting for him to find her.

Gibbs had been worried when she didn't answer right away and ran up to check in her room, completely missing the light coming from beneath the basement door. Not finding her upstairs he rushed downstairs and finally checked the basement, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw her sitting there.

"You have a boat in your basement," she said matter-of-factly as he walked down the stairs.

"Yepp," he said as he leaned on the counter next to her.

"How do you get it out?" she asked curiously. Gibbs laughed,

"Maybe one day I will tell you. But for now why don't you head on up to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow."

"Why?"

"We have to get you signed up for school," he told her. Amelia nodded,

"Right, Well goodnight," she said, going upstairs. She was not looking forward to going to school; in fact she was quite nervous. She had gone to the same school with the same kids for her whole life. She had never had to worry about meeting new people or making new friends because she had known the kids since they were all in diapers. But now she would be going to a brand new school in a brand new state and she couldn't get the nervousness she felt to go away. She quickly showered then climbed into bed, trying not to think about what tomorrow would bring.

**Thanks for reading! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEE REVIEW!**e H


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…well you get the picture. I'm super sorry for taking soooo long to update! But I've been inspired recently and plan on writing a lot more. This chapter was written in two parts, so I'm not sure if it really flows all that well, so I hope you like it.**

**Please leave a review to let me know what you think!**

Amelia woke the next morning to someone knocking on the bedroom door. Deciding it was too early she rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. She had just started to drift back into unconsciousness as the knocking started again, this time louder and accompanied by a voice,

"Amelia, wake up, we have to leave soon," Gibbs called through the door. Amelia groaned in response, pulling the pillow over her head this time. Gibbs opened the door a little, "You have fifteen minutes to be downstairs and ready to go," he said. He walked away, leaving the door open. Amelia groaned again but sat up in bed. After a few minutes of sitting in the bed she finally threw the blankets off and stood up, shivering when the cold air hit her body. She quickly made her way to one of her suitcases and pulled out some clothes for the day. She hastily pulled on the navy blue sweater dress, black tights, and boots before going into the bathroom to brush her teeth and style her hair.

Gibbs was waiting for her in the kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee, of course. He checked his watch and saw that it had been fourteen minutes since he had come downstairs. As he set his coffee on the counter, intent on going upstairs, Amelia walked into the kitchen,

"You hungry?" he asked. Amelia shook her head no,

"Let's just go," she said quietly, heading for the door as she threw a bag over her shoulder. The quick drive to the school was spent in silence, which seemed happen a lot, Gibbs noticed. They pulled into the parking lot and Amelia read the sign,

"Public School?" she asked in slight confusion.

"Yes, do you have a problem with public school?" he asked.

"Well I've never been to one before. I've always gone to private school," she told him, sounding a little nervous.

"It will be fine, come on," Gibbs said, getting out of the car. Amelia took a deep breath and climbed out of the car and followed him into the three story brick building. The interior looked a little like her old school, but everything seemed to be a little less taken care of. Of course, she had gone to the best private school in Manhattan where parents shelled out thousands of dollars for their children to attend and as a result everything at the school was top quality. Here, everything was nice but nothing like her old school. She followed Gibbs to the office, noticing that everyone was in class and there were only a few people in the halls and none of them looked very friendly in her opinion. Arriving in the principal's office they took seats next to each other across the desk from the principal.

"So you're Mr. Gibbs, and you must be Amelia," he said, stating the obvious. Amelia could tell right away that she disliked this man, though she couldn't really figure out why.

"Agent Gibbs, actually," Gibbs corrected. The principal, Mr. Whitmore, nodded,

"Well I've been looking over the transcripts sent from Amelia's school back in New York and it seems as though you did very well," he said, addressing Amelia, "So I doubt you will have a problem here. Here is your class schedule and supply lists. And if you both could just sign a few forms then you will be all set," he told them, handing over the forms to be signed. While they were signing papers Mr. Whitmore went over some of the school rules. They seemed to be just like her old school minus the fact that she would not have to maintain a certain GPA to attend the school, not that this was much of a problem. Amelia had been a straight A student from the time they started actually assigning grades and she had no intention of that changing.

"Do either of you have any questions?" he asked. Neither one of them did, "So we will see you tomorrow Amelia. You'll like it here," Mr. Whitmore said, trying to reassure the obviously nervous fifteen-year old. Amelia smiled and nodded as they left. When they got into the car she looked at her class schedule more closely. Her day was filled with Chemistry Honors, English Honors, AP US History, Algebra Honors, Speech, Spanish Two, and Gym.

"That seems like a lot of work," Gibbs said, pointing toward the schedule. Amelia shrugged,

"Not really. Can we go to the store and pick up some stuff?"

"Sure." Gibbs pointed the car in the direction of the store, figuring that it would be a good time to go ahead and stock up on food, and since Amelia was with him she could pick out stuff that she liked. A while later they were walking out with multiple bags full of school supplies and food. She already had most of the stuff on the list but it seemed that here, each teacher wanted her to have a separate binder organized a certain way, which was definitely going to take some getting used to since she was normally able to organize everything exactly how she wanted it.

"You hungry?" Gibbs asked as he drove down the street.

"I guess," she said. Honestly she was starving, having skipped breakfast and couldn't wait to eat lunch.

"How about takeout? Or do you want something else?"

"Takeout's fine," she said shortly, concentrating on her phone. Gibbs sighed quietly; he was finding it very aggravating to get only simple answers from his daughter. So far they had not had a decent conversation, simply a few sentences exchanged before Amelia stopped talking again. He knew that it was probably just her way of processing everything, but it was driving him crazy. They picked up their food and went back to the house. After everything was unloaded from the car Amelia grabbed her takeout container and made for the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Gibbs asked.

"I'm gonna eat in my room," she told him as she kept walking.

"No you're not. All food stays in the kitchen."

"Seriously?"

"Yes seriously," he said, watching as she rolled her eyes, "I think we need to talk anyway."

"I don't really feel like talking," she said but made her way back into the kitchen anyway. At least she was being honest with him, he thought. The pair sat down at the table and began to eat their food, "You wanted to talk, so talk," Amelia said after a few minutes.

"Alright, first things first, I have rules and I expect you to follow them. I don't want any back talking or rolling your eyes at me, it's rude and I won't accept it. Your grades will stay up. Your curfew is nine on weekdays and ten thirty on weekends. Don't go somewhere without asking me first and make sure I can always get in touch with you."

"Fine," Amelia said, focusing on her plate for a minute before whipping her head back up, "Wait! 10:30? Do you think I'm five? I can stay out later than 10:30!" This was the first time Gibbs had seen any emotion in his daughter other than sadness and he was a little surprised, but this did not throw him,

"I believe that 10:30 is an appropriate curfew for you."

"But mom didn't make me come home until midnight!" She argued. He was a little shocked that her mother had let her stay out so late at such a young age, especially in the city where it could be very dangerous.

"Well you live in my house so you will follow my rules. Your curfew is 10:30 unless I say otherwise."

"That's not fair," she said moodily.

"I think it's plenty fair," Gibbs replied.

"Well I don't. Shouldn't I get some kind of say? I mean, it is my life!" Gibbs was a little surprised at the argument she was putting up over something that seemed so simple to him.

"You're right, it is your life. And I am now responsible for your life. It's my job to make sure that you are safe, and that's going to happen by you being home at 10:30 on weekends. Besides you are only 15, you need your sleep, not to be out running all over town." Amelia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest,

"This is ridiculous," she mumbled under her breath.

"Would you like to repeat that a little louder so that I can hear you?" Gibbs asked, having heard exactly what she had said.

"Not really," she said as she pushed her chair back from the table and moved to put her plate in the sink.

"Loose the attitude Amelia. You will come home when I tell you to or you can just stay here. It's your choice, but I'm not going to argue with you about it," Gibbs said firmly.

"Whatever," she mumbled as she made her way to the stairs.

"I expect the attitude to be gone by dinner," he yelled after her. His only response was the door slamming. He sighed and put his head in his hands. He was not prepared for this. He had lived through war, he put his life on the line every day chasing after criminals and being shot at, but he had a feeling that the teenager upstairs would really test him. After he cleaned up from lunch he went down to the basement and began working on the boat he was currently building.

Amelia had gone upstairs after lunch, mainly wanting to be alone, but had soon grown bored and decided to unpack some of her belongings. A couple hours later she stood off to one side looking at the room, trying to decide if anything was out of place. She had moved the bed to the middle of a wall, right under the large window, and made the bed with her sheets and blankets from New York. She had put away most of her clothes and shoes in the dresser and closet. There were pictures on the wall and books on the shelf. Her laptop was set up at the desk, along with most of her school stuff. She felt a smile come to her lips; everything had a place and was exactly where she wanted it. It was one thing in her life that she could control right now and it gave her a little sense of security, something she needed greatly.

**I have a big question for my readers…Do you want Jenny to be alive in this story and involved in everything? I personally love stories where Jenny is still alive, but I enjoy them just as much without her. So please let me know what you think about this so I know how to proceed!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright, so I'm pretty sure I replied to everyone who left a review for the last chapter but if I missed you I'm SOOO sorry. I know I told some of you that this new chapter would be up tomorrow, but I started writing it last night and suddenly I couldn't stop. I literally had to force myself to go to bed when it got to be two in the morning. But I had time to finish it this morning, and I actually would have liked to add more, but it was getting pretty long as it is, so I held back.  
>Thanks SO much everyone who left me a review! And those of you that didn't, thanks for reading! I love hearing everyone's ideas and thoughts on the story and a lot of them have been very very helpful! Well now I'm off to work and would love some reviews to read while I'm there! SO keep leaving awesome reviews please! (Or unawesome reviews if you must)<strong>

**H**

Gibbs had spent the afternoon working on his boat and had managed to get a lot done but it was getting later and he knew he should probably start getting ready for the next day. Tomorrow Amelia would be going to school and he would be back at work. He had put away his tools and was heading upstairs to tell Amelia to come down for dinner. He knocked on the door first, not wanting to just barge in, he got no answer. Opening the door a little, he stuck his head in and looked around. In the few hours she had been upstairs his daughter had managed to transform the generic room into something that was completely her own. After looking around for a few seconds his eyes fell upon his daughter who was currently sprawled across the bed, sound asleep. She had been reading a book and it was lying open on the bed next to her. When she was asleep she looked so little and innocent, it seemed as if the tragedy that had happened the past few days had never existed, she looked peaceful. Not having the heart to wake her he simply grabbed the blanket that was folded across the end of the bed and draped it over her. As he left the room he switched off the lights and it was not long before he went to bed himself.

The next morning seemed to come quickly for Amelia and the alarm was buzzing much too loudly. Groaning she rolled over with her eyes still closed, and began hitting at the alarm clock, trying to make the irritating noise stop. After a few seconds she finally succeeded and was engulfed in silence. Wishing she could go back to sleep she groaned again and climbed out of bed. She didn't remember when she fell asleep, but she was sure she hadn't had the blanket on. Thinking that Gibbs must have checked on her at some point made her realize she was actually thankful for the warmth it had provided. Shivering as her feet hit the cold floor she made her way to the bathroom to take a shower. While the warm water washed over her she concentrated on how her day was going to go. She was not looking forward to starting this new school, in fact, she was kind of dreading it. Once she had washed her hair and shaved her legs she climbed out of the shower and walked back into her new bedroom. Starring into her closet she tried to decide what she was going to wear. Her old school had required uniforms, so school clothes were never much of an issue. After a few minutes she finally picked out a blue long sleeve sweater dress and black tights to go with it. She quickly did her hair and light makeup before getting dressed and slipping on a pair of boots. Checking the time she saw that she had quite a bit of time left and decided to get something for breakfast before she finished getting ready.

Gibbs had been up since five am like he normally was. Usually he would have gone for a run but he did not want Amelia to wake up in an empty house. He was a little surprised when he heard her actually get out of bed at 6:15 when her alarm went off; he had kind of expected her to sleep as long as she could. Deciding to make her breakfast to start off the day he set about making scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. He was just serving the eggs onto a plate when she walked into the kitchen. Amelia eyed the plate of food hopefully,

"Want some?" Gibbs asked, offering her the eggs. Amelia shrugged,

"Sure. Thanks," she said simply, grabbing a fork before sitting down and beginning to eat.

"So are you ready for school?" Gibbs asked, once again trying to start a conversation.

"Yepp."

"And after school you're going to take the bus home and call me when you get here," he tried to sound like he was asking a question, but it came out as more of an order.

"Sure," she said through a mouthful of eggs, causing Gibbs to look at her funny. Amelia simply shrugged and swallowed the last bit of eggs. She put her plate in the sink and retreated back upstairs. Gibbs sighed, she sure was good at one word answers, he thought.

A little while later Gibbs called for Amelia, telling her it was time to go. Amelia grabbed her coat and scarf before heading downstairs and out the door. The ride to school was mostly silent, the only noise being the pinging of Amelia's cellphone that signaled when she got a text message. Twenty minutes later they pulled up to the school,

"Have a good day. You'll do great," Gibbs said encouragingly. Amelia just looked at him and nodded her head before grabbing her bag and jumping out of the car. Gibbs watched as she walked into the school. On the outside she seemed incredibly confident and sure of herself, but Gibbs could tell that she was simply terrified about starting a new school. Once she made it inside he put the car in drive and sped off to work, wanting to make sure he got there before his other agents.

As Amelia walked into school she kept reminding herself that she had to breathe, that everything was going to be ok. Honestly, she was terrified and would love to just run home and curl up in bed, but she knew that wasn't an option. If her mother had taught her anything it was that she had to be a strong woman who could stand up for herself, and that was exactly what she was going to do. She had about ten minutes until her first class and she took this opportunity to walk towards the building she would be in. She had studied the map of the school the night before and thought she had a good grip on where everything was, but she still wanted to make sure she did not get lost. She was actually looking forward to her first class, Chemistry Honors. She had always liked science and was hoping this class would be as good as the ones she had taken in the past. While she walked she could feel eyes on her. Looking around she knew the other students were trying to figure out who she was, but rather than reveal anything she simply sat on a low wall and began texting her friends in New York.

It was kind of hard for her actually, to sit there and ignore everyone, when she was used to being the center of attention. In New York she had been one of the popular girls. She hadn't tried very hard, but people just seemed to flock to her and it was slightly bothering her that people weren't doing the same thing here. Her phone binging pulled her from her thoughts,

_Marissa: How's the new school?_

_Amelia: Weird. Everyone's just starring. _

_Marissa: Cause you're so damn beautiful they just can't keep their eyes off you!_

_Amelia: Whatever you say. You're just trying to make me feel better._

_Marissa: Is it working?_

Before Amelia could respond the bell rang and she had to make her way into class. She waited a few seconds to let more people file into the room first. When she finally entered she approached the teacher who hardly glanced at her.

"Excuse me?" Amelia said politely.

"What?" the teacher asked, still not looking up at her but rather focusing on a paper in front of him.

"I'm Amelia Covington, I'm new," she told him. He finally looked at her,

"Right. I knew you were joining us today. I'm Mr. Mosley. Why don't you take a seat with Mr. Walters," he said, pointing to a boy that was sitting at a lab bench by himself, "And I will get you a text book by the end of class," he went back to the paper and Amelia took that as her cue to go sit down. Walking over she smiled slightly at the boy she sat next to. As she pulled out her notebook she heard the boy talking to her,

"You're new," he said matter-of-factly.

"You're observant," she replied. He smiled and held out his hand,

"I'm Luke," he told her. Amelia took his hand in hers,

"Amelia. But you can call me Mia."

"So Mia, where did you move from?"

"New York," she said simply.

"Seriously?"

"No," she deadpanned. He looked a little confused, "Yes, I moved from New York," she hoped he wouldn't ask her any more questions and she was saved by Mr. Mosley beginning class. It turned out that her school in New York had been a little ahead of this school and she had already learned the topic they were covering today. Still, she took diligent notes, making sure to listen to everything that was said. At the end of class Amelia gathered her things and stood up.

"So what class do you have next?" Luke asked, walking next to her as they left the classroom.

"English Honors," she told him, having memorized her schedule the night before.

"Me too! We can walk together, I'll show you how to get there," he volunteered. Amelia agreed, not really sure why this boy had decided to befriend her, but she wasn't going to turn away someone who seemed nice enough. While they walked Luke chattered on about their Chemistry class and how he had barley understood a single word that was said today and would likely fail the test they had on Friday.

"I can help you if you want," Amelia offered, "We already learned this at my old school, so I've pretty much got it down," she told him, not wanting it to seem like she was trying to say she was smarter than him.

"You're an angel!" Luke exclaimed loudly, giving her a hug, causing people to look at them. Amelia laughed a little,

"It's no problem," she shrugged as they walked into their English class.

Although Amelia had understood everything that was said in Chemistry last period this class seemed to be kicking her butt within the first few minutes. The teacher had pointed to a seat and then launched right into their assignment for the day. Sadly, Luke was seated on the other side of the classroom and could not help her understand what they were doing. This class was structured completely different than her old one and she was finding it hard to keep up with what was going on. Finally, forty five minutes later she walked out of the class next to Luke.

"That sucked," she moaned as they walked to their lockers that happened to be pretty close together.

"That class always sucks. Mrs. Givins can be a real bitch," Luke told her reassuringly.

"Still, it sucked," she said.

"What class do you have next?"

"AP US History." Luke frowned,

"I have Spanish. What lunch are you in?"

"Second," she said and Luke smiled.

"Great, me too! Find me when you get there and I'll introduce you to some people," he told her as the bell rang, telling them to get to class.

"Sure. See you in a little while," she said as she walked away from her new found friend.

The rest of the day passed pretty much the same, though the rest of her teachers seemed pretty cool and laid back, unlike her English teacher had been. At lunch she had found Luke and sat at a table with him and about six other people, two girls and four boys. They were friendly enough, but Amelia found herself comparing these new people to her old friends in New York, and somehow they just couldn't seem to measure up. Still, she made conversation and managed to enjoy herself at lunch. Much to her pleasure no one had asked her why she moved to DC yet, or not directly anyway, and she had managed to avoid having to answer the question so far.

When the final bell rang she gathered everything she would need for homework then set off to find her bus. Twenty minutes later she was sitting in her new house, starring at the mountain of homework she had on her first day. Sighing, she picked up her chemistry book, deciding to start on the easy stuff and go from there.

**So what did you think? Sorry about the all caps, I have no idea why but my laptop keeps caps locking the keyboard for no reason at all. **

**Reviews please!**


	8. Chapter 8

**So there you have it. I'm pretty sure I planned to have this up earlier, but that obviously didn't happen. You know how when you've been having a really good run in life, then all of a sudden something sneaks up on you and screws a lot of stuff up? Well, that happened recently, so I'm just trying to catch up a little. No big deal though. I got you guys a new chapter! And hopefully I will have the next one up not too long from now! I have the day off tomorrow so I will have more time to write.**

**I'm not sure if I PM'd everyone who reviewed last time. Sorry if I forgot to do that, like I said, Life :/ Anywayss, leave a review and let me know what you think or if there is anything you want to see happen! Can't wait to hear from you all! Enjoy!**

When Gibbs arrived in the squad room he was pleased to see that he was in fact the first one there, though he knew that the others would not be long. He placed his belongings by his desk, switching on the computers that sat there and preparing for the day. Once everything was ready he picked up his coffee cup and headed for the elevator to take him down to Ducky's lab. The doctor had already been in for about an hour when Gibbs arrived in Autopsy.

"Ah Jethro, how are you this morning?" he asked politely. Gibbs sighed,

"Why is it so hard to be a father to this girl?" he asked directly, "With Kelly it was easy, but Amelia seems to hate me. She doesn't talk to me or anything."

"Well you can hardly compare the two Jethro. Kelly lived with you her whole life, Amelia has been torn from what she has known her whole life and dropped in the middle of something new. It's going to be hard for her to adjust to being here. You just have to give her some time to get used to everything. She started school today didn't she?"

"Just dropped her off," Gibbs said.

"Good. School will help her adjust to being here," As Ducky was speaking Gibbs' cell phone rang, alerting him that they had a case.

"Gotta go Duck." Gibbs headed towards the door before Ducky spoke up again,

"Ah, Jethro?"

"Yes Duck?"

"Are we ever going to meet this daughter of yours?"

"Of course Duck, I just don't really know when," Gibbs said as the elevator doors closed.

The day passed quickly for Gibbs and his team, but he had been in interrogation at the time Amelia had gotten out of school. As he walked out of the interrogation room he was feeling very frustrated with the suspect they were talking to. He was not giving any answers or information and Gibbs was getting pissed. He flipped open his phone, expecting to see a missed call from Amelia, telling him that she was home from school and when he did not find one he felt himself getting even more angry. He snapped his phone shut right as Tony walked around the corner,

"Everything ok Boss?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh yeah DiNozzo. The suspect won't talk and my daughter is breaking my rules already. Everything's great!"

"What'd she do?" Tony asked curiously.

"I told her to call me when she got home from school and she hasn't yet. School's been out for nearly an hour!"

"Did she maybe text you boss? Kids these days don't do a lot of calling, they'd rather text," he said. Gibbs looked at him doubtfully, "Can I see your phone boss?" Gibbs reluctantly handed over his phone and upon looking at the screen Tony said, "Ah, yep, there you go, she sent you a text twenty minutes ago saying she made it home."

Gibbs found he was incredibly annoyed with this news and snatched his phone back from Tony,

"Get to work," he ordered before walking away.

Amelia was in the middle of her homework when Gibbs walked into the house that night. She had finished her Chemistry and Spanish quickly and was currently doing her English homework. Gibbs walked into the living room and found her glaring at the book in front of her.

"How was your day?" Gibbs asked, skipping the hellos. Amelia shrugged,

"It was fine," she said, still glaring at the book.

"That's good. What happened to calling me when you got home?"

"I sent you a text," she said distractedly as she wrote the answer to one of the questions.

"I didn't ask you to text me, I asked you to call me Amelia," he told her. She looked at him

"Are you mad?" she asked, confused.

"Yes, because I asked you to call me and you didn't."

"I thought it would be fine if I texted you!" Amelia defended.

"Well it's not. I asked you to call me and from now on you will call me,"

"God, chill out. You're way over reacting!"

"I am not over reacting Amelia. I am your father and when I ask you to do something I expect you to do it. Understand?" Amelia starred at him,

"Whatever," she said coldly, gathering up her books and quickly heading upstairs. Gibbs sighed and sat on the couch. He wasn't sure why he got so mad at his daughter just then, in fact the more he thought about it the worse he felt. He figured he shouldn't have yelled at her over something so trivial, she had after all, contacted him in some way. Deciding it would be the best way to keep in touch with his teenager he figured it would be good to get over his aversion to texting and embrace the new form of communication.

Sighing, he made his way into the kitchen to start dinner and an hour later he called Amelia downstairs. They were silent for the first few minutes before Gibbs spoke up,

"I shouldn't have gotten angry at you earlier. You didn't do anything wrong. You can text me from now on if you want," he said trying to apologize without actually apologizing.

"Sure, whatever" Amelia said vaguely, starring at her plate of spaghetti. Gibbs nodded, figuring that was the best he was going to get.

"So your first day went well?" he asked, hoping she would do something other than shrug. He was pleased when she spoke up,

"It was alright. Most of the classes are easy, most of the people are nice," she told him. It wasn't a lot, but she figured he cared enough to ask about her day so she should at least try to respond.

"That's good then," Gibbs answered. Amelia nodded and the two went back to eating in silence.

"_We'll get there," _Gibbs thought about the silence, Amelia just had to adjust to DC first.

The rest of the week passed quickly and pretty much the same for Amelia. Gibbs dropped Amelia off at school each morning, classes would pass quickly or slowly, depending on the day, and she would go home, text Gibbs and start her homework. By the end of the week, though she would never admit it to anyone, she decided she could actually kind of like it here. She had gotten to know Luke and his friends better and found that she actually enjoyed spending time with them and was hoping to go out with them tonight. They had mentioned something about a bonfire somewhere and they were practically begging her to come along. She had quickly agreed, thinking that it was nice to have plans for the weekend, and hadn't really thought about what Gibbs would say. She bid her friends goodbye, telling them she would see them tomorrow, and got on the bus to head home. When she walked in the door she sent a text to Gibbs, making sure he knew she was home. She didn't want to have to deal with him freaking out again. He seemed to be overly sensitive or something, she thought. He was always yelling at her or getting mad over the smallest thing and she was having a hard time adjusting. In New York her parents hadn't cared what she had done, as long as she kept up appearances. Having Gibbs want to know her every move was weird for her.

Deciding to wait on her homework until Sunday she dropped her bag by the front door and headed for the kitchen to make a snack. Once she had a bowl of popcorn she went upstairs to her room and turned on her laptop to chat with her friends from New York and the ones she had just made.

Meanwhile, Gibbs was in the middle of paperwork when he got the text from Amelia letting him know she was home. He had quickly learned how to send a simple text message and it seemed to work well. He wasn't exactly thrilled with the form of communication, but it's what his daughter was used to and he would do anything for her, including texting. His team had just wrapped up a case the day before and they were now finishing the last of the paper work that went along with it. He was staring at a report when Tony spoke up,

"So Boss, how's the kid?" he asked curiously. Gibbs sighed quietly; his team was too nosey for their own good.

"She's fine DiNozzo," he said simply.

"Yeah? When do we get to meet her?" Tony wasn't going to give up, he could tell. He knew that his team was curious to meet the daughter who suddenly popped into his life, but he wasn't sure if he was ready for her to meet his team, or if Amelia was ready for that matter. She was still adjusting to everything that had happened recently and he didn't know how she was going to react to more people.

"Soon DiNozzo. How about tomorrow, we can all have lunch?" he asked to the team in general, figuring it would be best to just have everyone over one time.

"Sounds great Boss," Tony said.

"Sure," Ziva agreed.

"I'll tell Abby," she's gonna be excited Boss, she's been wanting to meet Amelia ever since you told us about her," Tim said. Gibbs nodded, making a mental note to invite Ducky and even Jimmy to lunch tomorrow. He would have to go shopping, he thought, and pick up enough food for everyone, but that wasn't a big deal. His main concern was how Amelia was going to react to meeting his team. Trying to read the rest of the report he gave up after a few minutes, calling it a night to head home and prepare for tomorrow.

**So what did you think? She's finally going to meet the team! How do you think it should go? And what about the bonfire with these new friends of hers? Any ideas? I would love to hear your thoughts!**

**So leave a review and let me know what you think or if there is anything you want to see happen! Can't wait to hear from you all! Enjoy!**


	9. Chapter 9

**So, I had a really hard time writing the part where she met the team. Not sure why, but for some reason it just wasn't working for me. S if you guys don't like it, or want more or something, please tell me! Or if you have any suggestions on how I can make it better? Tell me that too! I think I had a hard time because I really just wanted to get to the bonfire chapter. I was gonna put it in here, but that would have been too long. So let me know what you think of this chapter or what you want to see happen next!**

**I am working late tonight, but I get to be on my comp, so hopefully I can get the next chapter written and have it up probably sometime tomorrow.**

Gibbs was a little surprised when he pulled up to his house that night after work and all the lights seemed to be off. He quietly made his way inside, not wanting to wake Amelia if she was already asleep, even though it was only nine in the evening. Once inside he saw the glow of the TV coming from the living room and walked in. Not paying attention to what was on the TV Gibbs walked around the couch,

"Amelia?" he asked quietly. Without warning he was hit by a pillow as his daughter screamed loudly. He quickly flipped on the light switch, flooding the room with light and saw his daughter cowering under a blanket. Taking a look at the TV he understood her actions. On the screen was a creepy looking man running after a young girl down a dark street. Apparently he had walked in right at the climax of the movie.

"You scared me so bad!" Amelia exclaimed, coming out from under the blanket. Gibbs chuckled slightly,

"I'm sorry; I didn't realize you were in the middle of a scary movie."

"Next time announce yourself or something," she said sarcastically, smiling just a little as the credits rolled on the screen.

"Did you have a good day?" he asked her, amazed that she had actually used some expression when talking to him instead of the monotone she had adapted recently. Amelia shrugged,

"It was fine. How was your day?" Gibbs was even more amazed, not only was she talking to him, but she was asking him about his day. If you were to ask Amelia why the sudden change in attitude she wouldn't have an answer for you. She was just in a good mood and felt like talking.

"My day was slow. We were just finishing up paperwork today." Amelia nodded,

"Sounds boring," she said truthfully.

"It was," he paused for a moment, thinking before speaking, "My team really wants to meet you," he told her.

"Oh?" She didn't quite know what to say to that. She figured it might be good to know the people he worked with, but she wasn't too sure about it.

"Yeah. We are going to have them over for lunch tomorrow, if you're ok with that," he figured he should at least run it by her, even though he doubted his team would stay away now.

"Sure, whatever. What time will they be here?"

"Around noon."

"Alright. Well I'm gonna go to bed. See you in the morning," she stood and started toward the stairs. Gibbs was a little annoyed at the way she seemed to blow him off and he watched her walk upstairs. Halfway up she stopped and turned around,

"Next time make some noise. Don't go sneaking around when I'm watching scary movies," she told him, smiling. Gibbs smiled back and watched as she went the rest of the way upstairs. After a few minutes he went to work on his boat for a while before going to bed.

The next day Gibbs was up early, as always, and was very surprised when his daughter walked into the kitchen at quarter past seven.

"What are you doing up?" he asked, expecting Amelia to have wanted to sleep late on the weekend.

"I'm gonna go for a run. I just wanted to get something to eat first," she told him as she opened the fridge and began pulling out a few things.

"You don't know the area, you could get lost," Gibbs told her. She shrugged,

"I can find my way," she said simply.

"I don't want you going alone," he said.

"Well then come with me. But I always run on Saturday mornings and I'm not going to stop just because I might get lost."

"Fine, I'll go with you," he told her, heading back upstairs to change. He figured the grocery shopping could wait a few hours. When he got back downstairs Amelia had changed also and was ready to go. Silently they headed out the door and began jogging down the street. Gibbs was surprised at how good of a runner Amelia was. She was quite fast and had good endurance, though he had no problem keeping up with her. After a while of running they turned back towards the house and when they got to the end of the street Amelia sprinted off,

"Race you!" she called over her shoulder as she ran as fast as she could. Gibbs quickly took off after her but she had had enough of a start that he could not catch up. "I win," she said when he got to the house.

"That wasn't fair, you cheated."

"Did not."

"We will just have to race again, see who wins this time."

"Sounds like a plan," she said as they both headed to their separate bathrooms. Gibbs finished his shower first and decided to go ahead to the store. When he got home it was almost eleven and he started cooking some of the food, knowing his team was likely to show up early. Sure enough, around eleven thirty he heard the front door open.

"Gibbs?" he heard Abby call. It didn't surprise him that she had just walked into the house, or that she was the first one there. Abby was definitely the most eager to meet his new daughter, with Tony close behind of course.

"In the kitchen Abs," he called back. A few seconds later the Goth scientist walked into the kitchen, holding a few things in her arms. "What is this Abby?"

"Mashed potatoes, and a gift for Amelia," Abby told him brightly, "Where is she?" she looked around as if expecting to see the teenager jump out from behind something.

"She's upstairs in her room." Abby looked a little disappointed, "She'll be down soon," he said as he heard more people walk into the house. Soon enough the whole team was there and his daughter was still upstairs. After a few more minutes Gibbs walked to the bottom of the stairs and called for his daughter to come down.

Ever since Amelia had heard people beginning to come in downstairs she had been pacing around her room. For some reason she was incredibly nervous about meeting these people, which was weird because she usually never got nervous when meeting new people. She wasn't sure why she was feeling this way, but she knew that she didn't like it. She had dressed comfortably, wearing her favorite pair of jeans and a blue and grey stripped sweater with a pair of well broken in uggs. She stayed in her room for as long as she could before Gibbs was calling her down to join them. Taking a deep breath she went downstairs and into the room full of people. Upon first glance they all seemed to be normal people and she felt herself relax a little bit.

"Amelia, this is Tony DiNozzo, Ziva David, and Tim McGee, they're agents. This is Abby Scuito, our forensic scientist, and this is Dr. Donald Mallard, our ME," Gibbs told her, introducing each person. Amelia smiled,

"Nice to meet you," she told them politely. Her mother had taught her well when it came to meeting new people and how to act around them so she was easily able to cover her nervousness.

"Everyone, this is my daughter Amelia." Before anyone could say anything Abby had thrown herself around the teenager in a hug.

"It's so nice to meet you! I've wanted to meet you so bad! Ever since Gibbs told us about you! And here you are! You're so pretty!" Amelia had been a little surprised at first, not expecting to be greeted by such a happy and hyper person, but she felt herself smiling. Abby reminded her a little of her friend Marissa back in New York.

"Ok Abby, let the girl go, you're going to suffocate her," Tony said. Abby stepped back,

"Sorry, I'm just really excited," Abby explained. Amelia smiled,

"It's alright," she said. An awkward silence enveloped the group,

"Well, should we go eat?" Ducky asked, breaking the silence. Everyone gratefully made their way into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. Amelia ended up sitting between Tony and Ducky, across from Ziva.

"So Amelia, what classes are you taking in school?" Tim asked once everyone had their food. Amelia told them the different classes she was taking. Tony made a face,

"That sounds horrible," he told her. Amelia laughed a little,

"It's not that bad," she told him, "Only my English class. It sucks."

"I never liked English," Tony admitted.

"I'm pretty sure my teachers had it out for me since day one! It's crazy."

"Tim here is an author," Abby pointed out.

"Really? What kind of books do you write?"

"I write Deep Six, I'm Thom E. Gemcity," he told her.

"Seriously? My best friend loves your books! She's going to be so jealous when I tell her I met you." The group laughed a little bit at her enthusiasm. As they talked more she wasn't sure why she had ever been nervous in the first place. She found that she was actually really comfortable around this group of people. Gibbs was incredibly surprised and a little annoyed that she was opening up to them and getting along with them so easily. She had hardly said much to him since they had met, and it was always with some sort of attitude.

So far they had all avoided asking her personal questions about her family as no one wanted to upset her and they weren't quite sure how she would react. The rest of the afternoon was spent making small talk and getting to know each other. While Amelia was not just going to tell them her life story, she found that she trusted these people a little and could tell them a few very impersonal details about her life. Most of the things, however, someone could find out by looking at her Facebook. Amelia was in the middle of telling Tony about a prank she and her friends had pulled when they were younger when Gibbs' phone rang. He walked into the next room to answer it and came back in a few minutes later.

"Well looks like the party's over. We have a dead marine," he told his team. Everyone groaned but began gathering up their stuff and heading out the door. Each one of them telling Amelia that they enjoyed meeting her and that they hoped to see her again soon.

Eventually it was just Gibbs and Amelia left in the house,

"You alright if I go to work?" he asked.

"I'm fine. I've stayed by myself all week, one more day is nothing," she said as she cleaned up some of the dishes.

"I'll probably be working late tonight. Not sure what time I'll get home."

"That's fine. I'll see you tomorrow then." He had noticed the change in her demeanor once the team had left and it was very frustrating. He would have to talk to Ducky tonight and see what he had to say about it. He said goodbye to his daughter and headed off to NCIS.

Once he was gone Amelia grinned. With Gibbs not in the house it would be easy for her to just leave to meet up with her friends to head out to the bonfire. Sure, she could have just asked Gibbs if she could go, but for some reason she couldn't figure out sneaking out seemed like a much better idea. In New York she wouldn't have considered it sneaking out, since her parents had never really cared where she was going or with whom. But here, with the rules Gibbs had set for her, she felt the need to break as many of them as she could.

After finishing up in the kitchen she ran upstairs to get ready to leave. Soon her hair was done and she had put on a little more makeup and she was heading out the door. Jumping in Luke's car she smiled at him,

"Hey," she said.

"Hey. I thought you were sneaking out?"

"He's not home. It's a little disappointing actually," she said, "But let's go!" Luke laughed and pointed his car in the direction of the woods they were having the bonfire in. It was going to be an interesting night, he thought.

**So let me know what you think of this chapter or what you want to see happen next! I have an idea of what is going to happen, but I'm always open to suggestions. Hope you liked it!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Ok, so I meant to write this on Monday night and post it yesterday, but I didn't feel like it. Then I had half of it written yesterday and was going to finish but then remembered that the NCIS and NCIS LA finales were on last night and of course I HAD to watch those. And OMG! Did you see them! I won't give anything away in case you haven't, but holy crap! How can they end the shows like that and expect us to wait all freaking summer! They were so awesome though! But still, OMG! Lol, anyone else feel the same way?**

**Anyway, this chapter is a little longer and will be continued in the next chapter. Thanks to everyone who read last chapter and especially those of you who reviewed! I love the reviews you guys leave! Every single one of them! Especially when you point out that I've forgotten about something. I'm very good about forgetting things, so it's nice to have you guys remind me what I'm doing. And of course I love your suggestions! And thoughts!**

**WARNING! This chapter DOES contain underage drinking. I DO NOT in any way condone underage drinking OR drinking and driving!**

**ALSO VERY IMPORTANT! The idea for this chapter came from smush68! Thanks so much for sharing your idea!**

When Amelia and Luke arrived at the bonfire there were about thirty people there already and the fire was going strong, which was a good thing since the temperature was dropping very quickly. They all stayed rather close to the warmth coming from the fire. Someone had brought a few cases of beer and was passing them out, but Amelia politely declined.

"You don't drink?" Luke asked as he popped open his own bottle. Amelia shook her head,

"No. My brother drinks a lot, more than he should, so I don't like to drink," she told him. Luke nodded,

"That's cool. Personally, I love beer," he said, taking a long drink. Amelia laughed at him as more of their friends walked up to them.

"It's so cold!" the girl known as Casey said, jumping up and down in place to prove her point. Her boyfriend Michael walked up behind her,

"Then stand closer to the fire," he told her, moving her gently towards the flames.

"Want a beer?" Luke offered. She made a face,

"Ew, no, beer is gross! Besides, someone has to be sober and take care of your drunken ass," she said teasingly.

"I don't get drunk," Luke told her.

"Sure, whatever you say." The subject was dropped and the small group drifted around, talking to various people and dancing. A few hours had passed since they arrived and the fire was still going strong. As Casey had predicted, Luke was well on his way to being drunk.

"Let's go for a walk," he said to Amelia, slurring his words.

"Sounds like a good plan, but let's leave this here," she said, taking the beer out of his hands and giving it to someone to get rid of. She figured a walk in the cold night air would do him some good and get him closer to being sober, that way he could actually drive her home. The two of them walked toward the edge of the clearing they were in, towards the dark woods, walking slowly so that Luke wouldn't fall over. As they walked he rambled on about anything that came to mind, causing Amelia to laugh at him.

"I hate to break it to you, but you're definitely drunk," she told him.

"No. No way, I am not drunk," he slurred.

"Ok, whatever you say." While she did not drink herself she had no problem with others who chose to drink. The group she had grown up with in New York tended to drink on several occasions, despite the fact that they were all underage, and she was used to it. They walked through the woods for a few minutes; the only light was from the moon in the sky, which wasn't all that bright. They had stopped for a minute so that Luke could look at something that had caught his attention. It was quiet where they were, though they could faintly hear the music coming from the bonfire. All of the sudden Amelia heard rustling in the bushes behind her. Turning around she examined the trees carefully but didn't see anything. The sound stopped for a minute before it started again,

"Do you here that?" she asked Luke.

"Hear what?"

"The rustling, someone or something is in the bushes over there."

"I don't hear anything. There's nothing there," he told her.

"Yes there is. C'mon, let's go back," she was a little frightened about what could be in the trees and she would rather not find out what it was.

"Not yet," Luke protested. She took his arm as the rustling got louder and closer,

"Luke c'mon. I want to go back! You seriously can't hear that?" As she spoke a figure burst through the trees, charging right for them. Amelia screamed and tried to move out of the way, pulling Luke at the same time. But Luke was much bigger than her and their reaction time was a lot slower than it normally should have been. As a result the figure that had come from the trees ran straight into them, knocking them over before falling on top of them. The fall seemed to sober Luke up a little and he quickly pushed the person off of them and jumped up, pulling Amelia up along with him.

"Are you ok?" he asked, looking her over. She nodded nervously and they looked at the person who was still lying on the ground. Amelia moved closer slowly,

"Hey, hey are you ok?" she asked, nudging the person a little but keeping her distance. He didn't move, "Hello?" Luke moved in front of her and gently flipped the person over. Amelia gasped at what they saw. The man had blood all over the front of his body and there were stab wounds visible on his arms.

"Oh my God," Luke said, pulling Amelia away as if the man would suddenly jump up and attack.

"Is he dead?" she asked fearfully, trying not to look at the body.

"I don't know, but we have to call the cops," he said, pulling out his phone and making the call. After calling, they quickly made their way back to the clearing, warning the group that cops would be there soon and they should probably clear out, though they didn't tell anyone why they knew that cops would be there soon. People quickly grabbed what was left of the beer and began dumping water on the fire before taking off for their cars. As Amelia and Luke were about to get in the car they saw flashing red and blue lights pull up behind them.

"Crap," Luke said, still slurring his words slightly.

"Don't talk," Amelia told him, "They will be able to tell that you've been drinking. Just let me talk to them." A cop came up and knocked on their window, which Luke rolled down,

"Are you the kids that made the call?" the officer asked.

"Yes sir," Amelia answered, "The guy is through the woods over there," she told him, pointing.

"Alright, well we are going to need you to stick around so we can get your statements," he told them. Amelia sighed a little; she had really wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Seeing the man had frightened her greatly and all she wanted at this point was to go home and curl up under her blanket, hopefully forgetting about what she had seen.

"Sure," she sighed. Neither of them really wanted to stick around, but having no choice they sat back in the car listening to music and staying warm while waiting for someone to talk to them. Amelia found a small case of water in the back seat and began forcing it down Luke's throat, trying to hide the fact that he had been drinking and then about to drive. They had been sitting there for about ten minutes when someone finally knocked on the window again and signaled for them to get out of the car. The pair got out of the car, instantly missing the warmth the heater had been providing. Without the roaring fire the clearing was much colder. The officer who had knocked on the window now faced the teenagers,

"I need you to tell me exactly what happened," he told them. Amelia spoke up,

"We went for a walk in the woods and we were stopped looking at something. I thought I heard something but Luke hadn't heard anything. But I kept hearing rustling. Then that man came stumbling out of the bushes and fell on top of us. I tried to talk to him to see if he was ok, but he wasn't answering and when we turned him over," she trailed off, remembering the blood that covered the man.

"Did he say anything to either of you?" the cop asked. They both shook their heads no. "Ok, well it turns out the man was a marine, so we are turning the case over to NCIS, they will probably want to talk to you," he told them as a few more cars pulled up to the area.

"Why did we have to talk to you then?" Luke asked rudely, still slightly drunk.

"Sorry officer, ignore him," she told him, giving her friend a small shove.

"What were you all doing out here tonight?" he asked. It was obvious to anyone who walked through the area what they had been doing out here, but he thought it might be interesting to see what excuse they came up with.

"None of your business," Luke spat. Amelia rolled her eyes,

"We were just going for a walk," she shrugged. The cop looked at her skeptically,

"In thirty degree weather, in the middle of the woods, twenty miles from town?" Amelia just nodded and starred at him. "Whatever, you're not my problem anymore," he said as he saw a new person approaching them.

Gibbs and his team had gotten the call of another marine that had been found in some woods by a couple of teenagers and they had quickly gathered their gear and made their way to the outskirts of town. Upon arriving at the crime scene Gibbs went to talk to the officer in charge, leaving Tony, Tim, and Ziva to work amongst themselves. They were collecting all of their equipment out of the truck when Tony looked over across the clearing,

"Hey, isn't that the Boss's kid?" he asked his teammates, looking closer. Tim and Ziva quickly looked at where Tony's attention was.

"I believe you're right Tony, that does look like Amelia," Ziva agreed.

"But what's she doing here?" Tim asked.

"Only one way to find out," Tony said as he began walking across the clearing. On his way he noticed the smoldering remains of the fire and several beer bottles that had been left. It was clear to him that there had been some type of party there and he wondered if Gibbs' daughter had been involved in said party. As he got closer he saw that Amelia was standing with a boy a little older than her and an officer. He heard the officer say they weren't his problem anymore as he approached,

"You the Feds?" the officer asked.

"Yepp, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo," he said, pulling out his badge to prove it. Upon hearing Tony introduce himself Amelia spun around, shocked to see the man that had been at lunch earlier.

"Great, they're all yours," the officer said, walking off without a second thought. Tony rolled his eyes but turned to the two teens standing in front of him, focusing on Amelia,

"Does your dad know you're here?" he asked her. Amelia glared at him,

"No, Gibbs does not know that I'm here." Luke looked at her,

"Who's Gibbs? Where's your dad?" he speech was less slurred than it had been, but it was still obvious that he had been drinking. Tony sighed and looked around for Gibbs. Spotting him by a path that led through the woods he called out to him,

"Hey Boss!" Gibbs turned, "You might want to come over here."

"Who's that?" Luke asked again. Amelia rolled her eyes,

"Just shut up," she snapped. Tony looked at her strangely but she simply ignored him. She had a feeling she was going to be yelled at soon, and it was all that stupid dead guys fault. She shuddered at the thought of the dead marine and crossed her arms in front of her.

Gibbs heard Tony yell for him and when he had looked in his direction he was shocked to see his senior field agent standing next to his daughter. Turning from the officer he had been talking to he made his way across the clearing. As soon as he got there he starred at his daughter,

"What are you doing here?" he asked coldly. Amelia felt her defenses go up, not so much because she was scared of Gibbs, but because she felt that she had to disagree and argue with everything he said.

"Going for a walk," she said simply, keeping up with the excuse she had told the officer earlier. Gibbs raised an eyebrow,

"Want to try that answer again?" he knew his daughter and this boy standing next to her had not just gone for a walk.

"No."

"I think you should Amelia."

"No thanks." Gibbs was getting frustrated with her so he turned to the boy,

"What were you guys doing out here?" he asked, hoping for a different answer.

"Just going for a walk," Luke said, as normally as he could, not wanting to get in trouble.

"Then would you care to explain why there is a huge pile of smoldering firewood and beer bottles lying around everywhere?"

"Dude, I don't know, someone forgot to clean up their mess I guess," Luke told him. Gibbs sighed, why couldn't people just give straight answers when he asked them questions?

"Ok, one of you needs to tell me exactly what happened tonight. All of it," he told the two teens standing in front of him. Neither one of them spoke up, knowing that as soon as they did they were going to be in trouble. He looked at his daughter, maybe he couldn't make the other kid talk, but his own daughter was going to listen to him. "This is not about you; this is about that Marine who died back there."

Tony watched as Gibbs and Amelia starred at each other. It was impressive, he thought, no one could really out stare Gibbs, but he figured if anyone could do it, it would be his daughter. He was almost a little disappointed when he saw Amelia give in and look away,

"Fine," she muttered. Gibbs almost smirked, but kept his expression hard,

"Good, now tell me what happened." Amelia sighed,

"We were here for a fire, but me and Luke got a little bored, so we decided to go for a walk through the woods. We had stopped to look at something and I heard some rustling coming from behind us but when I turned around there was nothing there but I kept hearing it. All of a sudden that man ran out of the bushes and ran right into us, knocked us to the ground. We tried talking to him but he wasn't answering and when we flipped him over we saw," she swallowed a little, "We saw all the blood," she cringed as she told the last part. It really had scared her, especially being knocked to the ground by the man.

Gibbs listened as she retold what happened earlier, noticing how it had seemed to scare her. Once she finished he nodded,

"DiNozzo, go put them in the car, we can drive them home after we process the scene," he told his senior agent calmly. Tony looked at him oddly; he had expected his Boss to go flying off the handle at his daughter. After all, he clearly had no idea she had been here, she was alone in the woods with a boy he didn't know, she was at a party where there had obviously been drinking going on, and they had no idea if she herself had drank anything. As he walked them over to the car he thought to himself that it's always calmest right before a big storm. He had a feeling that a huge storm was on its way.

**So what did you think? Are we looking forward to this big storm? I sure am!**

**SO leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter and what you would like to see happen next!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok, so I apologize profusely for taking so long to update! If you knew how hectic my life has been recently you would totally understand. The kids that I nanny for just got out of school for the summer, so really good friends of mine are moving to freaking Alaska! I said goodbye to them this morning, talk about sadness! I've had like five friends graduate high school this year, so I've been planning/going to a million parties it seems like. BUT I finally have the week off and no plans, so I should be able to get a few chapters out! Sorry to have kept you guys waiting, I was doing well on my updates there for a bit.**

**So I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review and tell me what you think! **

**PS, I'm not sure if I responded to everyone's reviews last chapter, so if I didn't, I'm very sorry and thank you!**

Amelia and Luke sat in the back of Gibbs' car quietly until Luke spoke up,

"So was that your dad?" he asked, talking about Gibbs.

"Yes," Amelia said reluctantly. In the week she had been in DC and in school she had managed to completely avoid talking about her family. Not wanting to have to explain the situation to anyone. Now though, she wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to get away with it.

"He seems like such a hard ass, he's a little scary," Luke admitted.

"Wouldn't know," Amelia said with a shrug. Luke looked at her a little oddly but decided not to ask any questions, for which Amelia was thankful.

"What are your parents going to think? When you get brought home by cops?" she asked him, changing the subject and focus to him. Luke shrugged,

"They'll probably be pissed, I'll be grounded for a couple days, and then they'll get over it. That's usually how it goes."

"You're lucky. I have a feeling Gibbs is really pissed," she said.

"Why do you call him Gibbs?"

"Because I don't want to call him dad," she said simply. Before Luke could say anything else Gibbs and Tony slid back into the car. Ziva and Tim were riding back with another agent, leaving these two to drive the teenager's home. It was a quiet drive, the only conversation being Luke giving Gibbs directions to his house. It took about twenty minutes and when they pulled up to the house Gibbs and Tony escorted Luke to the door. A few moments after ringing the doorbell a sleepy looking man opened the door,

"What?" he asked rudely. Upon seeing his son standing in front of him between the two men that were obviously cops he woke up a little, "What's wrong?"

"I'm Agent Gibbs, NCIS. Your son was at a party in the woods when a dead marine stumbled upon him and another teenager."

"What kind of party?" the man asked angrily.

"It wasn't a party dad, just some people hanging out," Luke insisted. His father looked at him closely,

"Have you been drinking?"

"No!"

"Get inside, we will talk about this later," he pulled Luke inside and pushed him towards another room then turned to face Gibbs and Tony, "You said something about a dead person?"

"Yes, he was in the woods when the dead marine stumbled out of the bushes. Both of them are fine, physically, just a little shaken up I think," Gibbs informed the man.

"Ok, thanks. I'll make sure he's alright. Thanks for bringing him home Agent Gibbs."

"No problem, have a good night." Gibbs and Tony walked back to the car and slid in without saying a word. Amelia still sat in the back seat, arms crossed over her chest, obviously pouting. Gibbs rolled his eyes and began driving back to NCIS. His plan was to take Tony back to work so that he could help Tim and Ziva, while he took his daughter home and they had a little chat.

"Don't stay too late Tony," Gibbs warned as he dropped off the senior agent. Tony nodded and headed inside, leaving Gibbs and Amelia alone in the car together. Neither of them said anything on the fifteen minute drive home and as soon as they were in the driveway Amelia jumped out of the car, not even waiting for Gibbs to put it in park. She stormed inside as quickly as she could, not wanting to be around Gibbs at the moment. Before she could even set foot on the stairs Gibbs stopped her,

"Don't even think about going up those stairs young lady," he said firmly. Amelia rolled her eyes, but turned around none the less.

"What?" She snapped.

"What do you mean what? I want to know what you were thinking when you went to that party tonight?" Gibbs said, trying to stay calm.

"It wasn't a party," she said, shrugging.

"Don't lie to me Amelia. I know that there was a party going on, and lying to me about it is not going to help you right now."

"Why is it such a big deal?" she asked. Gibbs was getting rather annoyed with his daughter,

"It's a big deal because you did not have permission to go out tonight, let alone go to a party. A party where I know there was alcohol and I'm sure there was drugs."

"I don't drink! Or do drugs! That's just stupid!"

"That's not the point Amelia. The point is that left the house tonight without asking me if you could go out. Not to mention it is way past 10:30, which I believe is when I told you your curfew was."

"So? It's not a big deal! I just went out for a while!"

"It is a big deal. You went against my rules, that will always be a big deal!" he was raising his voice. He was growing more and more angry at Amelia as they continued talking. She didn't seem to realize that it was a big deal if she didn't follow his rules, and that was frustrating him to no end.

"This isn't fair!" Amelia was yelling now, "You shouldn't be getting mad at me for this! I was having fun, don't you want me to be able to have fun and have friends here! You should be happy that I even made friends, not freaking out because of some ridiculous rules you made!"

"Well after tonight you're not going to get to see your friends for a while. So I hope you had fun."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I'm talking about you being grounded. You went out without my permission, I didn't know where you were, you lied to me about where you were and why you were there, and to top it all off you were out past curfew. You're not leaving this house for anything other than school for a month."

"What? That's not fair!"

"It is fair Amelia. It's completely fair."

"No it's not!" she was yelling now, not at all happy about being told she was grounded, she had never really been grounded before and she didn't like the sound of it. Gibbs took a deep breath,

"Go to bed," he said calmly. Amelia began to say something angrily and then stopped, looking confused,

"What?"

"I told you to go to bed. I am not going to argue about this. I am your father and if I tell you you're grounded, then you're grounded. Now it is time for you to go to bed." Before she could say anything else he turned around and began walking towards the basement. After a few seconds he heard her stomping up the stairs and her bedroom door slam closed quickly afterwards. He sighed as he took a sip of bourbon, it wasn't easy punishing his daughter, but it had to be done, she had to learn to follow his rules. He had considered grounding her for two months, but remembered that her mother and stepfather had never punished her and she was allowed to do whatever she wanted without having to ask permission. He knew it would take a while for her to get used to that, but when she broke that many rules in one go he couldn't just overlook it. He knew she wasn't happy about it, but she was just going to have to get over it.

Amelia had stormed up the stairs, furious about being grounded. She purposely slammed her bedroom door as loud as she could, making sure Gibbs would hear it downstairs. She couldn't believe she had gotten in trouble for something that seemed so small to her. Really she considered it no big deal and hadn't been expecting to get in trouble. She huffed around her room angrily for a few minutes, checking her computer, only to find that no one was online. She slammed the laptop shut as hard as she dared then flopped down on her bed, grabbing her iPod along the way and shoving her headphones in her ears.

She wasn't quite sure when she fell asleep, but she knew that the knocking on her door was waking her up way too early.

**What did you guys think? There is more coming to her punishment, but I decided to leave it for the next chapter. Any ideas you have please share!**


	12. Chapter 12

**See, not long at all since the last chapter thanks to everyone who read and especially those of you who reviewed. Honestly I can probably have another chapter up tonight or sometime tomorrow, it depends on how lazy I am feeling. So it won't be a long wait again, the perks to having the week off I suppose. **

**So leave a review and let me know what you think please! And just a little side note, I realized that I'm really close to 100 reviews, I'm not gonna beg for reviews, but if enough people want to review to put me up at 100 I wouldn't complain :D **

It seemed like only seconds had passed since Amelia had lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, when realistically; it had been about four hours since she had fallen asleep. Still, even after five hours Amelia was not happy when she was woken up by heavy pounding on her bedroom door.

"What?" she yelled, not moving from the bed. The door opened a little bit,

"It's time to get up, you need to be ready to go in fifteen minutes," Gibbs said, sticking his head in. Amelia opened one eye and looked at him,

"What?" she asked more calmly this time.

"You need to get up. We are leaving in fifteen minutes," he repeated, flipping the light switch on before leaving the room to head downstairs.

"Ugh, what the hell," Amelia moaned to herself as she rolled out of bed. Not completely sure what Gibbs had in mind she moved slowly, deciding if he was going to wake her up after so little sleep he was going to have to wait for her. As she wandered around her room getting ready for the day Amelia was looking for her phone. After checking on the charger, by her bed, and on the dresser she still had not found it. Growing frustrated she went to grab her laptop instead and was incredibly confused when it was not on her desk like usual. Figuring Gibbs probably had something to do with it she quickly finished getting dressed and made her way downstairs. Gibbs was waiting at the bottom step.

"Where is my stuff?" she asked him.

"What stuff?" he pretended not to know what she was talking about.

"You know what stuff! My cell phone! And laptop! It's not in my room and I'm pretty sure you know where it is!"

"First off, you can lose the attitude Amelia; it's not going to help you today. Your laptop and phone are safely put away for now. You can have your phone when you go to school, but you are to use it only to call me. Anything else and I will take it away even longer. You can use your laptop for schoolwork only and you will only be allowed to use it in the living room."

"Are you insane?" Amelia asked him rudely, "This is completely ridiculous!"

"This is not ridiculous Amelia. This is what it means to be grounded. You broke my rules and there are consequences to that. At the moment I cannot trust you to stay in the house by yourself while I am at work. You will be coming to work with me today and then each day after school until your grounding is over." Amelia starred at him, she had never been grounded before and to her it seemed like he was piling it all on in one go,

"You really are insane! How can you expect this to help anything! All it's doing is making me hate you!" she yelled loudly. She began to turn around and storm away from him but he grabbed her arm and made her stay where she was,

"You are not going to speak to me like that. I am you father, even if you aren't happy about it, I am your father and you will treat me with respect. You will not yell at me like that again, if you do, there will be consequences for that too. This is your first and only warning. Understand?" when he spoke his voice was very calm and low, very intimidating to Amelia who nodded in response. "Answer me," he told her.

"I understand," she said quietly.

"Good," Gibbs let go of her arm, "We are leaving in five minutes. Be ready to go." Gibbs went into a different area of the house to finish getting ready for work while Amelia stood in the same spot on the stairs. She was not happy about anything that just happened, but the way Gibbs had been so calm when he spoke to her just then intimidated her big time, she realized, and she was not looking forward to the rest of the day. When Gibbs appeared by the stairs again she grabbed her purse and coat and stormed out the door before he could say anything. While she had been standing there she decided that if he didn't like the way she spoke to him that she just wasn't going to speak to him at all. To her, that solved the problem all together.

The drive to NCIS was a very quiet one, though Gibbs was thankful they were not arguing again. He had been wary about bringing his teenage daughter to NCIS, not wanting her to be exposed to the cases and everything that went on, but he could find no other option and had convinced the director that it was necessary. She would be staying in the squad room while the team was there, then if they had to go out to a crime scene or something she would stay with Ducky or Abby. Ducky was his first choice, as he was more likely to make sure Amelia followed his rules and the rules of her grounding, but he did not want her down there if Ducky had a body on the table, in which case she would be staying in Abby's lab. He knew Abby would be much more susceptible to Amelia's whining and manipulating and was more likely to allow her on the computer or something.

Arriving at the NCIS building they stopped to get Amelia a visitor's pass then made their way up to the squad room. When they arrived, Tony, Ziva, and Tim were already sitting at their desks; it seemed as if they had never gone home.

"Hey boss. Boss's daughter," Tony greeted.

"Hey Tony," Amelia answered. Gibbs glared at them both and when he turned his back Amelia stuck her tongue out at him, "Mature," Tony whispered. Amelia responded by simply sticking he tongue out at him this time, causing Tony to retaliate in the same fashion. Of course Gibbs chose this exact moment to turn around and see them,

"Grow up DiNozzo. Amelia, over here," he said, motioning to the spare desk in the small area. Amelia shuffled over to him and sat down at the desk, frowning when a pad of paper and a pencil was set in front of her.

"What's this for?" she asked curiously, looking at Gibbs. He set down another paper next to the first; this one had words written on it. Upon closer inspection she saw that the words were actually a list of Gibbs' rules.

"You're going to sit here and copy each rule until I tell you to stop," Gibbs told her. Amelia felt her mouth drop open,

"Are you kidding me? Why?" she whined.

"Because it's part of your punishment," Gibbs said simply.

"Oh my God, are you serious? There's more to this? I think there is enough to this stupid punishment!"

"I disagree. Get started. And make sure it's good handwriting, or you will be redoing it." Gibbs walked over to his desk and watched his daughter while pretending to be busily checking his email. He figured it was a good thing Amelia couldn't see his computer, or she would know it wasn't even on, he thought.

Amelia sat at the desk, glaring at the papers for a while, arms crossed over her chest. Finally Gibbs spoke up again,

"The longer you wait, the longer you're going to have to write," he told her. She groaned, but picked up the pencil and began writing each of the rules that was listed in front of her. The team continued to work while Amelia sat writing her lines.

After a few hours of sighing and eye rolls on her part and ignoring from Gibbs Amelia finally set her pencil down,

"Can I have lunch? Even prisoners get lunch and free time," she said, speaking for the first time since she began writing. Gibbs looked at his daughter then at his team,

"Ziva, what are you doing right now?" he asked.

"Just finished getting those numbers you asked for Gibbs," she told him.

"Great. Can you take Amelia to get lunch?" he asked. Normally he would have taken her himself, but he was too busy to really leave the office at the moment.

"Of course."

"Thanks Ziva. Nothing fancy and don't let her talk you into going anywhere else," he told her, handing her some money. He knew that Ziva would not be persuaded easily by his daughter to go do something fun rather than coming back and writing more lines.

Amelia was just happy that it wasn't Gibbs taking her out to lunch as she still was not happy with him and would rather not speak to him. Ziva however had been nice to her when she had been at the house the other day and Amelia didn't think she would mind spending a few hours with her.

"Where would you like to eat?" Ziva asked the teenager as they got into the elevator.

"Are there any cafes or bakeries around here?" she asked hopefully.

"There is a nice café down on the corner, we usually get lunch there. We can walk if you would like, it's not too cold out."

"Excellent, let's do that," Amelia decided. Ziva nodded and the pair began walking out of the building towards the café.

**So what did you think? Love it? Hate it? Can't decide? Leave a review and let me know! Praises, ideas, and constructive criticism are all welcome **

**I have to say, it's kind of weird writing about them being in the middle of winter when I'm sitting in 90 degree heat that feels more like 100 degrees (anyone want to guess where I live? Lol)**


	13. Chapter 13

**So, I thought I would have this chapter up a little earlier. But I lost my jump drive like three different times and had a few things to do, but hey, at least you are getting two chapters in two days! Sadly I won't be able to update tomorrow and probably not on Saturday either. Going to Busch Gardens tomorrow and then getting my first tattoo on Saturday! So I hope you like this chapter! Leave me a review on what you think!**

Ziva and Amelia made the short walk to the café down the street and sat down at a table, waiting for someone to come take their order. Once that was done they settled into their table more, sipping on their drinks.

"I'm so happy to be out of there," Amelia groaned as she draped her coat over the back of her chair. Ziva smiled at her,

"And why is that?" She asked, as if she had been oblivious to Amelia's misery all morning.

"Are you kidding me? Gibbs is like a freaking prison warden. All I'm allowed to do is write those damn sentences!"

"It could be worse," Ziva offered. Amelia looked at her skeptically,

"How on earth could this whole situation be worse?" She asked, thinking that the woman sitting across from her was probably insane. Ziva decided to keep her mouth shut, not wanting to argue with the teenager about her problems just yet,

"Never mind," she said dismissively. Amelia shrugged,

"It's just so ridiculous. I mean, he's totally over reacting, don't you think?"

"Well,"

"I mean, all I did was go hang out with some friends, he's acting like I killed someone or something. It's not the end of the world." It was the first time Amelia had been away from her father all day and if she had her phone she would be texting her friends, complaining about how annoying and unreasonable Gibbs was being. Had she been able to talk to her friends then she wouldn't currently be complaining to Ziva, who was finding herself to be very annoyed with Amelia's ranting. The ranting about how unfair Gibbs was being continued for a few more minutes until Ziva could take no more,

"Enough! It is completely unnecessary for you to be complaining about your father this way," she said suddenly. Amelia stopped talking mid-sentence, surprised that Ziva had interrupted her.

"What are you," Ziva interrupted her again,

"You should consider yourself lucky that you have him and that he cares enough about you to punish you for making stupid decisions. If I had done something like that when I was your age I would not have been able to sit for a week. You made a choice, it ended badly, now learn to deal with the consequences," Ziva finished her own little rant and took a bite of her food. Amelia starred at the older woman in front of her for a moment,

"Sorry," she shrugged, only half meaning it but realizing that Ziva had a point. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Ziva spoke up again,

"So how has school been going for you?" she asked. Amelia considered not answering, but decided against it, not wanting to be ignoring two of the four people she was in close proximity with for the rest of the day,

"It's alright. Most of my classes seem really easy so far. Except my English class, English is gonna kill me this year."

"That is good. I am sure you will catch up in English, or you can get help from someone."

"Yeah, I'm sure it will be fine."

"And what about friends? I believe you have made a few if you are going to parties." Amelia didn't even bother denying that it was a party they had gone to,

"Yeah. On the first day, Luke, the guy I was with last night, decided he was going to be my best friend and wouldn't leave me alone. I didn't exactly appreciate it at first, but he kinda grew on me. He introduced me to some other friends of his and they all seem pretty nice."

"That's good. I am glad that you have made friends so easily. I know it is not always easy to make friends when you are new somewhere."

"Yeah, it's nice I guess. I just miss my old friends too," it was the first time Amelia had said it out loud, but she had been thinking it all week. Sure, these people that she had met here were nice and made sure she was included, but she had grown up with her friends in New York. She knew everything about them and them her. It didn't seem fair to her that she had to start all over and jump into these people's lives, no matter how welcoming they were.

"I understand," Ziva told her, "Sometimes I still miss friends that I left behind in Israel. I have some great friends here, and I even consider them family, but it is not the same." Amelia looked at her plate, she hadn't talked to anyone about the move from New York to DC and she wasn't sure if Ziva was who she should be opening up to, but something about the woman made Amelia trust her and she spoke up anyway,

"I really miss my brother too," she admitted quietly. Ziva felt her heart twinge a little for the young girl sitting across from her. For as much trouble as she seemed to have given Gibbs the past few days she really did feel bad for her. The only parents she had ever known had just died, and even if they were not the world's greatest parents, they still meant something to her. And so soon after losing her parents a father she has never known suddenly shows up and takes her away from her brother, her only other family. Yes, Ziva definitely felt sorry for this girl, but she in no way thought that excused her behavior lately.

"I had a brother," Ziva offered. Ari wasn't someone she normally talked about, especially with someone she didn't know that well, but something told her that Amelia needed to hear this.

"You did? What do you mean had?" Amelia was curious to know what happened.

"He was killed on a mission," Ziva told her, not wanting to get into the actual details. Not only was it hard to talk about but she did not think Gibbs would like them discussing the ordeal.

"Oh, I'm sorry. What was his name?"

"His name was Ari. He was older than me, only by a few years, but he never let me forget it. Tell me about your brother," she suggested. Amelia smiled,

"His name's Matt. He's kind of an idiot," she said. Ziva laughed a little,

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, he tends to drink, and do drugs, and get arrested."

"Ah, I see. I have to agree, that does seem pretty idiotic."

"Yeah, but he's still my brother. And even if he can be stupid he's still my big brother and I love him. He's always stuck up for me and cared for me when our parents weren't around, which was pretty often." Amelia paused to take a bite of food, "He wanted to have me live with him after the accident, but no one was going to let him have custody of a fifteen year old when he had such a colorful history."

"That's understandable though, they simply wanted you to be safe."

"I would have been perfectly safe in New York. But no, stupid Gibbs had to drag me to stupid Washington DC," Amelia spat. Ziva sighed,

"Can I give you some advice?" She asked rhetorically. Amelia looked at her expectantly, "Cut Gibbs some slack. I do not think he took you away from New York on purpose to ruin your life. He is simply fulfilling his duties as a father and cares about you. Consider yourself lucky that he cares about you and wants you to stay safe. My father did not always care about me and we do not even speak anymore. Do not ruin your relationship with your father over something that seems like a big deal now, but in a few years this will seem like nothing. So even though you are mad at him, just remember that he is trying his hardest and it won't always be easy if you are constantly not speaking to him."

Amelia listened to Ziva, and even though she knew there was truth to the words she could not bring herself to get over the anger she was feeling. She knew that everything that had happened was not Gibbs' fault but at the moment he was the easiest person to be mad at. Ziva checked her watch,

"We should probably be getting back," Ziva suggested. Amelia nodded and they paid for the food before taking the short walk back to the navy yard.

"Thanks for taking me to lunch Ziva," Amelia said when they were in the elevator.

"It was no problem Amelia. I enjoyed your company." Amelia would have said more but the doors opened to reveal Gibbs, Tony, and Tim standing there.

"Get your stuff Ziva. Amelia, you're going to stay with Ducky while we are out," Gibbs told them, not bothering with hello. Amelia inwardly groaned but stayed silent, starring at the elevator buttons. Tony, Ziva, and Tim exited the elevator at the ground floor, heading to the parking garage while Gibbs and Amelia continued down to autopsy.

"I expect you to listen to Ducky while you are down here. You'll be writing more lines, so you shouldn't be getting too distracted but don't touch anything or go snooping around. Understand?"

"I have to write even more! I thought I was done! I wrote the rules like five hundred times!"

"These one's are different," he said simply. Amelia groaned and rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut, remembering Ziva's words from lunch. Walking into Autopsy Gibbs led her to one of the desks where a pencil and even more paper sat. She starred at the items hatefully but sat down at the desk anyway. Once he was sure Amelia had begun writing Gibbs and Ducky made their way into the hall.

"She's not allowed to do anything else right now Duck. She may try to convince you otherwise, but all she is allowed to do is write those lines and go to the bathroom."

"It won't be a problem Jethro. I will make sure she stays on track," Ducky assured him, "Now go, you have a suspect to hunt down." Gibbs nodded and made his way back to the elevator,

"Thanks Duck," he called as the doors closed. Ducky nodded to himself and walked back into Autopsy, not too surprised to see Amelia slumped down in the chair, pencil abandoned beside her.

"Now I do believe that is not what you are supposed to be doing right now," Ducky said, causing her to jump.

"I need a break, all I've done today is write these stupid lines," Amelia whined.

"That's what happens when you break the rules," he told her, reaching over and handing her the pencil. Amelia groaned but took it from him anyway and began writing again.

**Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter and all the advice/suggestions I get are awesome! Don't forget to review to let me know what you think :D**


	14. Chapter 14

**Ok, I'm soo sorry for making you guys wait two weeks for a new update. My plan was to just wait a few days, but all of the sudden I got slammed with work, and I enjoy having a busy social life, so for the past two weeks I've pretty much only been home to sleep and shower and that's kind of how it may be for the next week or so. And then hopefully I will get a break. But also hopefully I will have a little more time in there to write. I'm hoping to have the next chapter done by Monday, but I'm still super busy, so that may or may not happen. But we can dream right? So once again, I'm sorry for the wait and I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

**Leave a review and let me know what you think!  
>And thanks to everyone who reviewed last time!<strong>

It had been about an hour and Ducky was surprised that Amelia had stayed quiet this long. He had expected her to complain most of the time about having to write and how unfair everything was. Looking up from his work he saw the teenager with her head on the desk, hand moving lazily across the paper.

"How is it going over there?" he asked, his voice breaking the silence that had previously enveloped the room, causing Amelia to jump.

"Boringly," she replied dully, hardly raising her head. Ducky examined her for a moment before speaking again,

"You know, this reminds me of a time when I was a lad," he began.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well when I was about your age I found myself in a similar situation. Some friends of mine were going to a party one night, a party that I had specifically been told not to go to, but I went anyway. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and I thought I had gotten away with it. But when I got home my father was waiting for me and after that I don't think I sat for a week." Amelia interrupted him,

"What does that mean? Ziva said sort of the same thing earlier, what are you talking about?"

"My dear, our parents had a more traditional way of handling things. Honestly I'm a little surprised that your father has not given you a taste of this method."

"But what are you talking about? What do you mean traditional?"

"I'm talking about spanking Amelia," he told her bluntly. Ducky watched as her eyes widened a little,

"Are you serious?" she asked disbelievingly. She knew that some parents spanked their children when they were younger, but she could hardly believe that a parent would spank a teenager.

"Yes, very serious. It was a very effective punishment, though I did not think that at the time, I never snuck out of the house after that."

"But you were a teenager! Only little kids get spanked," Amelia said. Ducky shook his head,

"Oh no my dear, spanking is not reserved for young children only. Believe me, there were many times as a teenager that I had a sore backside."

"But Ziva said the same thing; does that mean that she got spanked to?"

"It may, she is the only one who can really answer that question."

"And what did you mean when you said you were surprised that you were surprised that Gibbs hasn't given me a taste of this? He wouldn't do that to me," she protested, unable to actually say the word spanking when it pertained to her.

"Are you so sure about that Amelia?" ducky asked her. She looked at him confidently,

"Yes I'm sure. There is no way he would do that to me." The way she spoke Ducky could tell that she meant it and had obviously convinced herself very quickly that she would not be spanked somewhere along the way, though he really doubted that. It wouldn't surprise him in the least if the teenager pushed Gibbs to the point where he was forced to give her a sore backside; he was actually a little surprised that it hadn't happened already, though he knew Gibbs had been going easy on her.

"Well if that's what you think then it must be true, yes?" Ducky asked her. She looked at him oddly but nodded her head,

"Yes," she replied.

"I believe I've distracted you enough young lady, you may want to get back to your lines so that your father won't be angry with you."

"Ugh, writing lines is so boring though! I've been doing it all day! Can't I do something else?"

"No, your father specifically stated that the only thing you were allowed to do was sit there and write your lines."

"But I don't want too," she whined.

"Maybe you will think about that the next time you are planning on sneaking out of the house then," a new voice said from behind her. She turned around and was surprised to see Gibbs standing there,

"When did you get here? How did I not hear you?" Gibbs shrugged,

"I have my ways. She's not giving you trouble, is she Duck?" he asked.

"Oh no Jethro, we were just having a little chat while Amelia was writing her lines," Ducky said. Gibbs nodded and looked at his daughter,

"Go on upstairs and start writing again. Tony knows you are coming up there, so don't wander off or he will tell me." Amelia groaned but walked out of the room, leaving the two men alone.

"How'd she really do down here Duck?"

"She was fine Jethro. Hardly said anything until the end there when she started complaining about having to write so much."

"She will get over it. I could have done much worse," he said. Ducky nodded in understanding,

"She believes that you will not spank her Jethro, she asked me what it meant when both Ziva and I told her we would not be able to sit, so explained. I think she is a little sure of herself."

"Yeah, well we will see about that. But I just don't know Duck; I can't figure that kid out. She seems to like everyone except me."

"Her parents just died Jethro. Then she was promptly whisked away from the only life she has ever known. She's angry and taking it out on you because you are the most convenient. You just have to give her time to accept everything, it could take a while, but she will get there."

"If that's what you think," he said worriedly.

"That is what I think, that's also what I know. Now go take her home so she can stop writing, I think she's gotten the point." Gibbs smiled at his friend sheepishly; he knew that writing lines the whole day was going to be torturous, especially to a teenager, who from what he could tell did not like to sit still for very long. He made his way upstairs and when he walked into the squad room he saw his daughter leaning against his desk, laughing at something Tony had said. He stood back, unnoticed, and watched their interaction. It made him incredibly happy to see his daughter smiling and laughing seeing as she normally walked around the house with a scowl on her face. After a few minutes he walked into the area and when Amelia saw him she quickly sat down at the desk she was supposed to be at and picked up a pencil.

"You're done," he told her and smiled a little a she groaned and threw down the pencil.

"Finally!" Gibbs addressed his team,

"You all keep working. I'm taking Amelia home; call me if you find anything." He motioned for Amelia to follow him and she quickly grabbed her things before following her father to the elevator. When they arrived home Gibbs offered to make dinner but Amelia turned him down, claiming not to be hungry. Instead she went up to her bedroom, wanting to check her email and see if any of her friends from New York had sent her anything. She made it all the way into her bedroom before she realized that Gibbs had taken her computer and she had no clue where it was.

"Damn," she muttered under her breath. She looked around her room, trying to figure out what she was going to do without any of her electronics. Normally she wouldn't mind reading a book, but since that seemed to be her only option it was very unappealing and she quickly turned away from the bookshelf. After looking around for a few more minutes she finally pulled out a sketch pad and some pencils.

She had learned as a young child that she had a talent for drawing and for a while even had dreams of becoming an artist, but her mother had quickly squashed those dreams by telling her that no daughter of hers was going to become some artist rift raft. Amelia had tried pointing out several times that they owned several very expensive art pieces which her mother treasured and were created by those people she claimed to be artist rift raft, but her mother would not hear it and Amelia eventually gave up on that dream. Instead she drew when she had free time, but never made a big deal out of it. Tonight she sat on her bed for a few hours, sketching various parts of New York City, the parts she missed the most. Such as times square and Central Park and Broadway. As she drew she realized that she missed the city more than she thought she was going to and wished she could be back there.

After a few hours Gibbs knocked on the door to Amelia's bedroom and cracked it open,

"Hey, time for bed. You have school tomorrow," he told her through the door.

"Ok. Night," she said, shutting off the light and slipping under the covers quickly, not wanting to talk to Gibbs at the moment.

"Night," he said before closing the door and heading down to the basement.

Six o'clock came around quickly and Amelia groaned at the sound of her alarm. She quickly shut off the offending noise and threw the covers off, heading for the warm shower. Once showered and dressed she went downstairs and grabbed the plate of food Gibbs left on the table. She was on the last bite when he walked up from the basement.

"You ready?" Amelia simply nodded, throwing her plate in the sink and heading out the front door. Again, the ride to school was a quiet one, though it was a quiet they had both become accustomed to. When he pulled up in front of the school Gibbs locked the doors as Amelia tried to get out,

"What are you doing? I'm going to be late," she said, irritated.

"I will be picking you up after school today and bringing you to NCIS. You can do your homework there and I can keep an eye on you."

"Whatever," she said, unlocking the door and climbing out of the car before Gibbs could say anything else. He knew he was going to have to finally put a stop to this attitude his daughter had. He had put up with it long enough, longer than he would have with anyone else actually, and he had grown tired of it. He shook his head and pulled away from the curb after watching Amelia walk inside.

Once she was in the school Amelia quickly found Luke by his locker. He smiled when he saw her,

"Hey! I was trying to call you all day yesterday, are you ignoring me or something?"

"No, Gibbs stole my phone. Something about being grounded," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"You're grounded too? My dad went ballistic when he realized I had been drinking. Grounded for two weeks with no car."

"That sucks. I'm grounded for a month with no phone, computer, TV, anything like that. AND I have to go to his work every day after school so he can 'keep an eye on me'."

"Damn, that sucks. I'm sorry; it's kind of my fault you're grounded so long." Amelia shrugged,

"Whatever, I'm not mad at you." Luke smiled and pulled her into a tight hug,

"Excellent! Let's go kick some chemistry butt then," he said happily, causing her to smile. Luke was a very unique person and Amelia found it very entertaining and loved hanging out with him. He began walking, still hugging her, making her walk backwards and this is how they walked into their classroom right before the bell rang.

**Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Why don't you leave a review to tell me what you think about the chapter! :D**


	15. Chapter 15

**Ok guys, I am soo sorry! Life has been soo crazy right now and I've been super unmotivated to write. I mean really, who wants to write on their one day off? Well me apparently because that's what I'm doing. Anyway, sorry this update took so long! I currently work all the time and I'm trying to go to Honduras and get signed up for going back to school (finally time to go to college! Yay! It's only been two years lol), and to top it all off my computer has been doing crazy things and I hate using it, but when you put all that together it causes major stress and no desire to write. Soo, I finally pumped this out for you guys, though most of it was written after midnight last night, so if it doesn't make sense or just plain sucks, please let me know! I hope I haven't lost any readers with my lack of updates! I'm gonna try to make them more regular now!**

**Please leave a review and let me know what you think!**

The day seemed to get worse and worse as each class passed and by the time the final bell rang to dismiss the students Amelia was in a horrible mood. Chemistry had been ok, but every class after that just seemed to go wrong, they had a pop quiz in her math class that she was pretty sure she failed and a huge project assigned in Spanish. To top everything off her English teacher had assigned them a five page paper due at the end of the week on a book she had not read. Amelia had tried asking for an extension, but the teacher refused, telling her she was just going to have to find a way to get it done. Once the bell rang she quickly made her way to her locker, grabbing everything she would need, and storming out of the school towards her father's car. She didn't say a word to him as she got in the passenger seat and slammed the door, not once looking at him.

"Bad day?" Gibbs asked as he watched his daughter climb into the car. He could tell by her actions and body language that she was pissed about something, he was just glad that he didn't seem to be the cause of her anger for once.

"Just go," she pleaded, wanting to get as far away from the school as possible. Gibbs complied and drove away, heading for NCIS. Amelia was quiet for a few minutes before she spoke up, half looking at Gibbs.

"Do you think maybe I could have my phone back? Not for long, just a little while? I know I'm not supposed to have it because of what I did, and I know what I did was wrong. Trust me, after all that writing yesterday I don't have any plans to sneak out again. And I understand that you took my phone away because of what I did. But when me and Ziva were at lunch we were talking about brothers and it made me really miss Matt and I was hoping that I could have my phone back for a little while so that I could talk to him."

Gibbs was shocked that Amelia seemed to be admitting she had been wrong and asking permission to call her brother. Maybe making her write rules all day had given her a little bit of respect for him. He thought about it for a moment,

"Once you finish your homework, you can give him a call," he said, thinking it was a good compromise.

"Why do I have to finish my homework first? There's so much of it and it's gonna take forever! I just wanna call Matt!"

There's the girl he had gotten used to, he thought at her outburst.

"That's how it's going to be Amelia. If you finish your homework, or a decent amount of it, without complaining, then you can call your brother. But if you continue to whine about how much homework you have or speak to me with an attitude like that again you won't be calling him. Understand?" Amelia sighed,

"Yes, sorry," she said grudgingly as they pulled into the parking garage. She quietly followed Gibbs into the building and up to the squad room, siting at the desk she had occupied most of yesterday. Figuring it was her best chance of talking to her brother, she immediately began working on her homework. She breezed through the chemistry worksheet and struggled slightly on the math, but managed to get through it alright. She worked a little on the Spanish project she had been assigned but quickly realized she was going to need a computer for the rest of her homework. She looked at Gibbs' desk and saw him concentrating deeply on a file in front of him,

"Umm, Gibbs?" She asked quietly. He looked up at her,

"Yes?"

"I've done all the homework I can, I need a computer for the rest," she told him, hoping he wouldn't see this as complaining about doing homework. Gibbs nodded and moved his chair back,

"You can use mine," he told her, "Bring your chair." Amelia nodded and grabbed the papers and books she needed, placing them on the chair and sliding them across the room behind her father's desk. Gibbs had taken away her laptop after she snuck out and was not planning on giving it back until her grounding was over. However, he had no problem letting her use his computer to do any homework she might have, though he was going to sit at the desk with her, pretending to work, while really making sure that she wasn't playing around on the internet. He was happy to see that the only pages she pulled up were those related to the homework she was working on.

Amelia had been starring at the same website for the past thirty minutes, trying to figure out what the book she was supposed to be writing a paper on was about, but she couldn't concentrate to save her life. Groaning loudly she threw her head down on her arms, squeezing her eyes shut. She was unaware that her actions had caused the four other people in the immediate area to look at her,

"Problems?" Gibbs asked rhetorically. Amelia just groaned in response then unexpectedly stood up,

"I need a break!" she said, leaving the room before anyone could answer. They were all a little shocked but Gibbs followed her after a minute. He found her in a corridor, simply pacing up and down quickly.

"You ok?" Amelia nodded,

"Just frustrated," she said, shaking her hands a little bit. Gibbs could tell she had a lot of pent up energy, probably from sitting around and doing homework so long. He had seen her act the same way yesterday and assumed that his daughter was simply not good at sitting and focusing on one thing for long periods of time. Rather than try to get her to go sit and finish her homework he pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her,

"Call your brother," he told her. She smiled and took the phone,

"Thanks," she said genuinely.

"No longer than fifteen minutes or so though, you've still got to finish some of that homework." She nodded distractedly while dialing the number and Gibbs walked back to the squad room, but rather than going back to his desk he went to the one Amelia had been doing her homework at. Shuffling through the papers he found the homework his daughter had already completed and took it back to his desk, wanting to check it over. It had been a while since he had taken sophomore level classes, but he knew enough to know that his daughter had gotten all of the chemistry questions correct and all but two of the math ones right. Looking in the planner that was sitting on the desk he saw that she was currently working on a Spanish project where she had to give an oral report on a country of her choosing and bring in a prop of some kind that related to the country and an English paper on _Mao's Last Dancer, _whatever that was, he thought. As he looked over his daughters work he found that she was very meticulous and organized, almost to the point that it was compulsive. He would have to keep an eye on that, he thought.

While Gibbs was looking over her homework Amelia was happily talking to her brother.

"So how's it going there?" Matt asked.

"It's alright," she admitted, "Though I would much rather be back in New York."

"I don't blame you. I miss you Amy," he said sadly. Amelia smiled though, Matt was the only one who called her Amy and it was nice to hear the name again.

"I miss you too. It's weird not seeing you all the time. What have you been up to?" she had already told him all she wanted about living in DC and wanted to hear more about what he was doing.

"Oh, nothing really. Just same old, same old." He answered. Amelia knew that was his way of saying he had spent most of his time recently getting high as a kite. She rolled her eyes, but listened to him tell her about something that had happened yesterday. A few minutes later he had to go, so they said their goodbyes and hung up the phone. Talking to her brother had made her feel a little bit better and she made her way back to the squad room.

"How's Matt?" Gibbs asked. Amelia shrugged,

"Same as always," she answered shortly, sitting back in the chair next to Gibbs and handing him the cellphone. Looking at the computer screen she felt he heart sink. The website was Amazon, telling her just how long the book she was supposed to be writing a paper on was going to be long and boring. It didn't help that her teacher expected her to catch up on the reading and turn a five page paper in by Friday, four days from now. Checking the clock and seeing that it was only five she asked Gibbs if she could make a trip to the bookstore. Seeing as she was grounded and he did not exactly trust her to go on her own, he sent Tim McGee along with her.

"So what book are you reading?" Tim asked as he drove them to the bookstore.

"_Mao's Last Dance," _she grumbled. Tim made a face,

"I don't think I've heard of that one," he said.

"Yeah well, neither had I, until today that is. Although apparently every other student in my grade has and had all freaking summer to read it while I only get four days." She couldn't help but complain about the assignment.

"You've only just been assigned the book and now you have a paper on it due already?"

"Crazy isn't it?" she responded.

"It is crazy, how can your teacher expect that of you?"

"She's crazy as well! That's why the whole thing is crazy!" she told him as the pulled into the parking lot of the bookstore.

"I don't see how they can actually expect you to turn in a paper on a book you haven't read." Amelia shrugged,

"That's why we're here," she said matter of factly, gesturing to the bookstore before heading inside, not waiting to see if McGee was following.

This was the first time that Tim had spent any real time with his boss's new daughter and he was a little worried. He had seen the trouble she had given Gibbs and was not looking forward to having to put up with the attitude she always seemed to have. He found though that she was a completely different girl when not around her father. She had chatted the whole way about something he didn't quite understand, not because he wasn't listening but because she was talking so fast and switching subjects so quickly that he found it hard to keep up. He had a feeling this girl was very quick witted and could possibly talk circles around someone who wasn't prepared. He followed the teenager into the bookstore, helping her find the book quickly before driving back to the navy yard. She had started reading as soon as they got back in the car and by the time the fifteen minute ride to the navy yard was over she was already bored with the book.

"Why can't they ever pick good books?" she moaned as they rode the elevator together, "This is so boring!"

"Not all books can be exciting," he told her.

"Well why do they insist we read the crappy boring ones? I mean, do they want us to fail?" she asked dramatically as they walked into the squad room.

"Who's failing?" Tony asked when he saw them.

"I'm going to because this book sucks!" she threw the book on his desk as if to make a point. Tony glared at it,

"I don't want it on my desk if it sucks that much," he said, pushing it towards her with a pencil. She rolled her eyes and pushed it even closer to him,

"Want to read it for me?" she asked hopefully, even though she knew the answer would be no.

"You're funny," Tony said, fake laughing while pushing the book back to her.

"It's funny that you think I'm joking," she said, almost seriously, a slight smile playing across her face.

"What's this about anyway?" Tony asked, picking up the book and examining the cover.

"I have no idea! But it's boring as hell so far," she said as Gibbs walked into the room.

"Watch your language," he scolded as he walked past, snatching the book from Tony and setting it on the desk Amelia had been sitting at, "We're leaving in an hour. Why don't you read some more until we have to go," he suggested. Gibbs knew she had a paper on the book due in four days and he wanted Amelia to be done with the book as fast as she could so that she had plenty of time to write the paper. Amelia made a face and groaned, but walked over to the desk and sat down, lazily flipping the book open and scanning the page.

An hour later when Gibbs turned off his computer and began getting ready to leave he looked over at his daughter for the first time. Somehow within the span of an hour she had climbed onto the desk and was currently hanging upside down with the book in front of her face.

"Can you even read like that?" he asked.

"Sort of. I thought that maybe if I was reading in a more interesting position the book would seem more interesting," she said then paused, "It's not working." Gibbs laughed, amused by his child's thought process,

"C'mon, get your stuff. We're gonna head out," he told the team, "Don't stay too late." Together Amelia and Gibbs walked out of the building and Gibbs noticed that her mood had improved drastically once they were at NCIS, he figure it was probably she had just had a bad day at school that made her so moody earlier.

"What's for dinner?" Amelia asked as they climbed into the car and Gibbs began to drive. He thought for a moment,

"Spaghetti?" Amelia shrugged,

"Whatever," she said dismissively. When they got to the house Gibbs went into the kitchen while Amelia flopped onto the couch, picking up her book and beginning to read again. About twenty minutes later Gibbs called her to dinner.

"How's the book going?" he asked, trying to start a conversation.

"It sucks," she told him plainly, not saying anything else.

"Most books that schools assign do suck," Gibbs said, thinking back to the books he had been forced to read as a teenager.

"Seriously!" she agreed. There wasn't much conversation at dinner that night, but at least Amelia was not telling Gibbs that she hated him and wanted to go home. Amelia figured that he had been nice enough to let her call her brother, even though she was grounded, so she should cut him a little slack, for now at least.

The rest of the week seemed to pass way too quickly for Amelia's liking. She finished her Spanish project the next day, with Ziva's help since she spoke Spanish so well, and it was now Thursday. She was sitting in Autopsy with Ducky while her father and his team were out on a case. Ducky was not working on a body at the moment so she was able to stretch out on one of the metal autopsy tables. She was lying on her back with the book held up above her face, reading the last chapter of the book. Ten minutes later she was finally done with the last page, and in celebration she threw the book across the room. Which had seemed like a great idea until she heard a thud followed by a grunt. Sitting up she looked and saw that the book had managed to hit Ducky right in the back.

"Crap! I'm sorry! I didn't think I was gonna hit anyone," she apologized immediately.

"It's alright Amelia, maybe just be more careful the next time you decide to throw something. I take it you are done with the book though?"

"Yes! Thank God! It was horrible!"

"I'm sure it was not that bad my dear."

"Oh it was pretty bad. Can I go upstairs though? I have to write a paper on it now and I need the computer."

"Of course. Just go straight up there, no playing around on the way."

"Scouts honor," she said, holding up one of her hands and she hoped off the autopsy table and left the room quickly, only to walk back in a few seconds later and picking the book up off the floor, "I might need this," she explained before walking out again.

Once upstairs Amelia sat at her father's computer and opened a word document. Looking at the requirements for her paper she began to type. Two hours later she was printing out five pages on _Mao's Last Dancer. _She quickly shoved the paper in her English folder and put it in her backpack, not wanting to think about it anymore. She had sped through the book and counted on Spark Notes to fill in anything she didn't understand. She had always written excellent papers and reports for school, so she was not worried about the grade she would get on this one. Not long after she had finished her paper Gibbs showed up to take her home so she could get some sleep before school the next day.

When she woke up the next morning she was happy it was Friday. Because even if she was grounded and couldn't actually do anything she didn't have to worry about having any homework assigned to her, which meant she could spend the weekend in Abby's lab playing with all the equipment. Under very close supervision of course.

**Thanks so much for reading! Why not leave a review and let me know what you think!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Ok, so quick updates just aren't my thing right now apparently. It doesn't help that I have no motivation to write. I think it's because I'm not working right now, I've gotten lazy. Seriously, I don't even get up until 11 most days, it's a problem. So I wrote most of this chapter late last night so I hope it makes some sort of sense and flows a little bit at least.**

**SOOO leave me a review and let me know what you think about the chapter and anything you might want to see happen! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**By the way, this chapter has a little bit of swearing, just to warn you. Sorry if you don't like it, but it's not that much.**

The next day was a lot better than the day Amelia had yesterday and she actually managed to enjoy herself at school, even English wasn't that bad. Once she got to NCIS her mood increased, her father was out on a case and likely wouldn't be back for a couple of days. Gibbs had left Abby in charge, with strict instructions to not let Amelia watch TV, use the phone, or get on the computer. Amelia couldn't care less however because she was a huge fan of Abby's lab, which was where she would be staying for the next few hours. Seeing as the team was still out at the crime scene, Abby did not have any evidence to process and could hang out with Amelia instead. She knew the young girl had an interest in science and was currently showing her how to run fingerprints on her computer.

"Won't Gibbs be mad if I'm using the computer?" Amelia asked Abby skeptically as she entered the information Abby had given her.

"You're using it for your education, he can't get mad that you're trying to learn," Abby told her.

"Well, fingerprinting isn't exactly a life skill," Amelia mumbled, not really wanting to continue the conversation. If Abby was letting her use the computer then she wasn't going to complain about it and she continued inputting information.

"Ok, so now you just hit the enter button and soon enough a result will pop up," Abby told her. Amelia followed her directions and pressed enter. They had taken a few finger prints from around the building, Abby figuring the teenager would enjoy it more if she could identify people she was seeing throughout the weekend, and as a result they got hits fairly quickly.

Amelia was enjoying her time with Abby, she didn't have to sit there and write lines or read a boring book and she found she actually enjoyed conversation with the Goth scientist. While she found that she could talk to Ziva about her brother, Abby was good for gossiping. Something about the eccentric woman made Amelia feel as though she could tell her almost any personal detail from her life and she wouldn't judge. When Abby finally got evidence from the crime scene Amelia pulled out a magazine she had brought with her so that Abby could get to work. Abby continued to work for a few more hours, running samples and fingerprints; trying to find anything she could to help the team solve the case. When she looked over at Amelia she had to suppress a laugh, the teenager had fallen asleep while reading her magazine, but when Abby hadn't been paying attention she had stretched across the table that wasn't being used with an extra lab coat balled up under her head as a pillow. Not wanting to miss the opportunity Abby pulled out her cell phone and snapped a few quick pictures before getting back to work.

The team arrived back from the crime scene sooner than they thought they would, but it was still quite late. Gibbs had seen Abby's car in the garage and assumed that she was still in her lab with Amelia. Deciding to go check on them he took the elevator down and was surprised when he was greeted with silence, rather than the loud music he was accustomed to. He was almost a little worried and quickly walked through the door into the lab, preparing himself for something bad. He was a little shocked when he walked in to find most of the lights off, aside from a few right over Abby's computers.

"Abs, what are you doing?" he asked, causing the forensic scientist to turn around quickly and shush him. He was about to tell her off for shushing him when she pointed behind him, on the other side of the room. Turning around he saw his daughter, sprawled out as much as she could across one of the tables.

"You don't want to wake her up," Abby explained.

"How long has she been asleep?"

"About two hours now," she told him. He checked his watch and saw that it was nearly midnight and it suddenly did not surprise him that the fifteen year old had fallen asleep and even felt a little bad that she was not at home in her own bed. Deciding it would be best to take her home for the night he walked over and shook her gently,

"Amelia, wake up," he said quietly. The fifteen year old didn't move a muscle so he shook her a little more, "Amelia," he said a little louder now. Amelia groaned in response and started to roll over and before Gibbs could react she rolled right off the table and onto the floor.

"Owwww!" she yelled loudly, fully awake now. Gibbs and Abby ran around the table and helped Amelia sit up.

"Are you ok?" Abby asked worriedly. Amelia held a hand to the back of her head,

"I think so," she said, wincing. Gibbs pulled her hand away from her head to check for any damage and he felt his breath catch when he saw blood covering her hand and the back of her head.

"What's wrong?" Abby asked, noticing Gibbs' behavior.

"She's bleeding," he mumbled, parting her hair to get a better look at the source of the blood. Amelia winced at his actions,

"Stop," she whined, pulling away from him. He firmly held her head in place,

"Stop moving, I need to check if you need to go to the hospital," he told her.

"Why?"

"Because you hit your head when you fell. You're bleeding and you could have a concussion or need stitches," he explained while he was examining her head. After deciding that she wasn't going to need stitches he moved in front of her and started looking at her eyes. She was able to follow the finger he held up and answer simple questions. Satisfied that she was not going to slip into a coma and die anytime soon from the fall he and Abby helped her stand up.

"Let's get you home," Gibbs said. Amelia nodded,

"Sounds good, can I have some Tylenol when we get there? My head hurts."

"Of course." He wrapped an arm around her waist and let her lean into him as they walked. He was surprised that she allowed him this much contact, as she normally avoided it, but he figured that hitting her head that hard had left her a little out of it. It didn't help that she was still pretty much half asleep. He guided her carefully through the building and to the car where she fell asleep again. Once they arrived at the house Gibbs gently woke her up again, wanting to make sure that she was ok. Thankfully she woke up without a problem, just feeling annoyed at being woken up twice now, and stumbled inside and up the stairs, mumbling goodnight to Gibbs as he walked her to her bed. She was asleep again as soon as she hit the pillow, not even remembering to ask for Tylenol. Going downstairs Gibbs grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with water before taking the Tylenol bottle out of another cabinet and heading back upstairs. He placed the glass and the bottle on the table next to Amelia's bed then walked out of the room quietly, turning off the light, then going to bed himself.

The next morning Gibbs was woken up around six hearing movement downstairs. Sitting up quickly he climbed out of bed and quietly made his way downstairs, not wanting to alert whoever was down there to his presence. He snuck to the door of the kitchen and was surprised to see his daughter standing at the stove. His mind suddenly registered the music playing and he realized that explained the random dancing she seemed to be doing, there was ingredients everywhere and she seemed to have made quite the mess. He watched her amusedly for a moment before the smell of something burning reached him.

"Shit, shit, shit," she said frantically. Amelia's dancing stopped and she started looking around frantically as the smoke alarm started beeping loudly. When she moved Gibbs saw that whatever she had been trying to cook had burst into flames, large ones at that. Sprinting into the kitchen Gibbs pulled his daughter away from the growing flames and grabbed the fire extinguisher from under the sink. A few seconds later and the flames were gone, leaving only charred remains and the smell of burning food as the only evidence of the fire. Once he was sure the fire was out Gibbs turned around to face Amelia, who was standing behind him looking shocked.

"I'm sorry!" she said quickly as Gibbs starred at her.

"Are you ok?" he asked worriedly.

"What?"

"Are you ok? Did you get burned?" Amelia shook her head,

"No, no I'm fine. I'm really sorry though! I don't know what happened! I've made myself breakfast a million times before and this has never happened. Well, it happened once, but I was seven, so that doesn't really count. But seriously, I'm sooooo sorry!" Sure she had been pretty rude to Gibbs ever since he came into her life, but she didn't actually hate him and really did feel bad for setting the kitchen on fire.

"Hey, it's ok. As long as you're alright, then it's fine. I may have to replace the stove, but it's no big deal. I'm just glad you weren't hurt," he assured her. He looked at the stove and around the kitchen, "What were you trying to cook anyway?"

"Pancakes. I don't understand how I managed to set the stove on fire while making pancakes." She was honestly confused, he realized. He held back his laugh,

"That's a good question. Why don't you go get a shower and I will clean up down here. Then we can go get pancakes somewhere else," he suggested. Amelia nodded and turned to leave the kitchen,

"I really am sorry," she said again. Had she been one of his agents he would have reminded her of Rule number four, never say you're sorry, but he decided he probably keep that one to himself for now if he didn't want her to use it against him eventually.

"I know," he said, "It's ok. Now go get ready." She nodded and left the room this time and Gibbs turned around to face the mess she had made. Having seen how clean and neat his daughter kept her room he was shocked to see what a mess she had made in the kitchen. Pancake batter was all over the counter and various measuring cups were piled in the sink. There was an egg broken on the counter that was currently dripping onto the floor and the milk was sitting next to it. He rolled his eyes in disbelief and began to clean everything. By the time Amelia came back downstairs an hour later the kitchen was spotless.

"Ready?" he asked when she appeared in the kitchen.

"Yepp, let's go." The two walked out to the car and Gibbs began driving to a café nearby that had coffee the coffee he liked and was pretty sure served pancakes. After they ordered the two sat in silence until Amelia spoke up first, which surprised Gibbs a little.

"So, how long until you solve this case?" she asked, not knowing any details.

"It depends. We've got a few leads to chase down today, and hopefully that goes well, and if it does we should be able to close the case in the next few days. But if people are uncooperative and unhelpful it could take a lot longer to get the information we need."

"Oh. Why are people so difficult? Why can't they just tell you what you want to know?" Gibbs resisted the urge to point out that she hadn't exactly been flat out honest with him like she suggested these people should be and gave her a different answer instead.

"Because some people are afraid of getting caught doing bad things and will do whatever it takes to avoid punishment," he said.

"That's stupid. People should just own up," she said simply. Once again he resisted the urge to voice his opinion out loud and simply nodded in agreement,

"It would make my job a hell of a lot easier." They finished their breakfast quickly and continued on to NCIS, "How is your head feeling?" he asked as they reached the elevators. The bleeding had stopped by the time they got home or he never would have let her go to sleep.

"Better, it hurt when I washed my hair this morning, but it's alright," she told him, "Thanks for leaving the Tylenol."

"No problem. Are you good hanging out in the squad room today?" She nodded as they got off the elevator. Gibbs headed for his desk and Amelia went to the one she had occupied the other day. The rest of the team was not there yet so it was pretty quiet and Amelia had no one to entertain her. Growing bored she grabbed some paper from the drawer in her desk and a pencil and began sketching various lines. By the time Tony and Ziva arrived thirty minutes later she was on her third picture and hardly even acknowledged their presence. No one bothered her as they had a lot going on that morning but by the time lunch rolled around things had slowed down and her hand was beginning to cramp up. When her stomach started rumbling she finally put her pencil down and looked around. She and Ziva were the only ones in the immediate area.

"Ziva, where's Gibbs?" she asked. Ziva looked up from her desk to the young girl across the room.

"He's in interrogation," she told her, "Do you need something?"

"Food," she said simply. Ziva nodded in understanding.

"I'm not doing anything right now, how about I take you for lunch again," she suggested. Amelia smiled and stood up,

"Sure, let's go," she said happily, pulling on her coat and walking over to Ziva. She had enjoyed lunch with the older woman the other day and was looking forward to spending more time with her. Ziva quickly wrote a note to Gibbs, telling him that she had taken Amelia to lunch and then the pair was off. They decided on the same place as last time and ordered their food as soon as they sat at the table.

"So how did your paper turn out?" Ziva asked conversationally.

"Pretty good I think. I should get it back tomorrow or Tuesday, so we will see."

"That is good. Especially for only having just been assigned the book."

"Yeah, that part sucked, but whatever, it's over now and I never have to read that damn book again." Ziva winced a little at her language, knowing that Gibbs would not approve, but did not say anything. The two chatted a while longer while they ate their lunch and returned to NCIS when Gibbs called needing Ziva's help. The rest of the day Amelia spent in Ducky's lab. Drawing and listening to him tell her whatever story popped into his mind. She found that she really enjoyed his stories and he was more than happy to share them with her. By the end of the day she was more than ready to go home and went to bed soon after dinner.

School was the same as always, though they did not get their papers back until Thursday, due to their teacher being out sick with the flu. When she finally did get her paper back Amelia disappointed to see that she had gotten a C for a grade. After reading through the comments left by the teacher she decided to stay after class and talk to him about it.

"What is it Amelia?" he asked as she approached his desk after everyone had left the classroom.

"I wanted to ask you about my paper," she replied.

"What about it?"

"Well, I wanted to know why I got a C. I thought I did a better job than that."

"Honestly Amelia, your paper was just not well written. It lacked facts and details that are essential in getting a higher grade."

"I had a ton of facts and details, how can you say my paper was lacking them?" she asked defensively.

"It is what it is Amelia," he answered vaguely, "Now please be on your way, I have things I need to do." She sent him a harsh glare and stormed out of the classroom, making sure to slam the door behind her. She had worked hard on that paper and thought she deserved much more than a C, and she couldn't understand why her English teacher was being so unclear and dismissive to her concerns. As she was walking down the hallway she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and suddenly ran straight into someone.

"Watch where you're going!" she snapped, not looking at the person. She moved to the side and started to walk around them when the person grabbed her arm. Jerking away she snapped again, "Let go of me!" The person simply grabbed her arm again and she finally looked up, seeing Gibbs standing in front of her.

"Oh, sorry, my bad. I didn't realize it was you," she said. He let go of her arm,

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. Amelia rolled her eyes at the thought of the paper sitting crumpled in a trashcan down the hall.

"Nothing," she answered, "Just a long day. Can we go?" without waiting for an answer she began to walk down the hall again. Gibbs followed, looking at his daughter strangely,

"What took you so long?" he asked as they left the school building.

"I was just talking to someone," she answered. Gibbs could tell something was bothering the fifteen year old but didn't want to push her about it, afraid she would just shut him out.

"Ok. So, we closed our case earlier. I sent the team home early, so I don't have to go back to work today."

"That's nice," she said moodily.

When they arrived home Amelia went straight to her room and began doing her homework. Gibbs was confused on why his daughter could be acting this way and went down to the basement to work on the boat. A few hours later Gibbs heard Amelia emerge from her bedroom and make her way downstairs and eventually into the basement. He looked up when she walked down the stairs and noticed she was dressed in workout clothes,

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

"I was gonna see if I could go for a run," she told him. He checked the time and realized that the sun would be going down soon.

"It's going to be dark soon."

"Well then come with me. But please, can I go?" the fact that she was asking shocked him a little. Maybe he had gotten through to her after she went to that party. He thought about it for a moment,

"Ok. Let me just go change," he said. She smiled and turned back up the stairs, calling thanks over her shoulder before she left the room. Gibbs put his tools down and made his way upstairs to change.

**So what did you think? Let me know! **


	17. Chapter 17

**Woohoo! It didn't take me three weeks to update! How awesome is that! I even took a break in the middle of writing this to go for a run and still came back to it! OH, so I was running tonight through a park near my house that has a main road and then a lot of back trails through the woods, and while I was running I saw a guy that looked just like Gibbs! It was sooo weird! The only difference was that this guy was a little heavier, so obviously not a random celebrity sighting, but still, freaked me out for a minute.**

**Oh yeah, thanks to the person who signed as a guest a corrected the rule number for the last chapter! The website I checked said it was rule four but when I went back to look after your review I found a different site that had the right one and I went back and fixed it. So thanks for pointing that out!**

**Anyway, enjoy this chapter! Let me know what you think! **

Amelia and Gibbs were on their second mile before they even started slowing down. Once they left the house Amelia had sprinted down the street, not waiting for Gibbs to catch up to her. Eventually he managed to meet her stride and continued to run next to her. Her speed and stamina surprised him a little and he was glad to see that she was currently slowing down. After a few minutes they had slowed to a comfortable jog, leaving him with enough energy to try and talk to his daughter.

"You run really well," he complimented a little breathlessly.

"Thanks," she said simply, focusing ahead of her.

"Did you run a lot in New York?" he asked, hoping for more of an answer this time. She was quiet for a few minutes before she finally answered,

"Every day pretty much," she told him, "Even when I was a kid I ran a few races. I was always running everywhere, I never walked, and it would drive my mom crazy. She couldn't stand me running through the house, so she signed me up for one of those community programs."

"You must really like running."

"I do, it clears my head. Helps me think."

"What are you thinking about now?" he asked hesitantly, wanting to know what was going on with his daughter, but not wanting her to think he was prying. Once again she didn't answer right away and Gibbs thought that she was going to just ignore him.

"I got my English paper back today," she said, slowing down even more so that they were walking now. Gibbs nodded,

"Ok, is there a lot to think about with that?" he didn't really understand why it was bothering her and was hoping she was going to explain. She stopped under a streetlight,

"I got a C," she said quietly, looking away from him. He thought for a moment,

"A 'C' isn't really all that bad Amelia," he told her, "Sure, it could be better, but a 'C' is ok. Especially since it was your first paper at a new school."

"But it's not. I worked my ass off on that paper and I read that damn book as fast as I could just so that I could get it done in time! I wrote the stupid paper in one night for God's sake and it was a damn good paper! I deserved a better grade than a 'C'!" Gibbs was a little shocked at her outburst,

"Ok, first of all, watch your language, I don't appreciate it. Second of all, it's ok. I'm not mad at you for getting a 'C' and while I would like you to try harder it's ok once in a while for you to not do as well."

"But I did try hard! My English teacher hates me!"

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you Amelia," he tried reasoning.

"No, I'm pretty sure he does! Ever since the first day he's been rude and standoffish and never listens to my opinions."

"Maybe it will just take some adjusting to get used to his class. But if he continues to act like that then tell me and I can schedule a meeting with him. Ok?"

"Sure," she agreed quickly, "But you're really not mad about my paper?"

"No, I'm not mad. I would like to look at it though, if you don't mind."

"Um, that's going to be kind of impossible," she said quietly. He looked at her oddly.

"Why?"

"It's in the trash can at school," she told him, smiling slightly before taking off running again. Gibbs chuckled a little and ran after her, vaguely hearing her shout that she would race him home.

It seemed as if the small walk they had slowed to had managed to energize the teenager while he just felt even more tired while chasing after Amelia. By the time he made it back to the house she was sitting on the front porch steps, holding a bottle of water in her hands, another sitting next to her. When she saw him she handed him the extra water.

"Good run," she stated. Gibbs nodded as he chugged half the bottle,

"It was a good run," he agreed, "I'm glad we went."

"Me too. We should go again soon," she said, finishing the water and then heading inside before he could answer. He was surprised that she was suggesting they should spend more time together, but he was so happy that she seemed to be growing used to him and wanting to spend time with him that he wasn't going to question it or ruin it.

After the night they went running together Gibbs found that Amelia began opening up to him a lot more. Amelia continued to run almost every evening and if Gibbs were home he would make sure to run with her. She began to look forward to going to NCIS after school where she would do her homework and then spend time with various members of the team. She had not told Gibbs of any more issues with her English teacher so he assumed that everything was ok on that front. He was a little concerned that her behavior was possibly a bad sign, thinking that maybe she was suppressing anger or another emotion, but Ducky assured him that it was simply Amelia finally adjusting to all of the changes that had occurred recently. Once she began to actually talk to him in normal everyday conversations he found that his daughter was actually very entertaining to talk to and spend time with. She was very confident and witty, and always had a comeback for whatever Gibbs threw at her and Gibbs actually enjoyed talking to her. Gibbs quickly realized that Amelia was actually quite talkative and often had to remind her to let others talk. Each night at dinner she filled his ears with various stories of what had happened at school today and he suddenly knew quite a bit about her. She had been there for three weeks now and Gibbs was thrilled that she was actually adjusting well and seemingly enjoying herself.

Today though, Gibbs was not able to pick her up from school as he was stuck in MTAC on a video conference with SecNav. Tony quickly volunteered as he enjoyed spending time with Amelia and wouldn't mind a break from work. Gibbs agreed quickly, glad that he wouldn't have to worry about his daughter and went back to his meeting while Tony left to pick up Amelia.

As the bell rang Amelia left the school quickly, not bothering to stop by her locker as she already had everything she would need for the night. When she walked out of the school it only took her a few seconds to realize that no one was there to pick her up yet. Figuring Gibbs was just running a few minutes late she sat on the front steps, playing with her cellphone. She had been sitting there for a few minutes when she got a text from her brother,

'_I see you,'_

it said. Amelia's head snapped up and she looked around, spotting her brother off to her right, leaning against a tree.

"Oh my God! Matt!" she called excitedly, leaping off the steps and quickly closing the distance between them. When she reached him she threw her arms around him and he held her tight.

"Hey Mia," he said, using his nickname for her. She could tell right away that he had been drinking and even possibly smoking before he showed up, but she was so happy to see him that she let it go for now.

"I've missed you!" she told him, not letting go of him fully.

"I missed you too beautiful! New York just isn't the same without you," he slurred. She rolled her eyes,

"Have you been drinking?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Nope, no drinking." She could tell he was lying and rolled her eyes but her interrupted her next words, "So, tell me how much this place sucks," he said.

"It's not that bad actually. At first I didn't like it, but I've kinda gotten used to it and actually kind of like it. I've made a lot of friends, this kid Luke started talking to me my first day here and refused to leave me alone. He's awesome," she told him excitedly. A strange look crossed his face but he smile,

"That's great Mia," he said enthusiastically, glad that his sister was making friends.

"Oh, and you should meet the team that Gibbs works with! They're so awesome! Abby lets me use her computers when she's not busy and shows me all sorts of science stuff. And Tony and Tim are always arguing and they're so funny, Tony loves to play pranks and lets me help on some of them. And Ziva is amazing, she takes me to lunch sometimes and we just talk about everything, she even knows how to kill people with a paperclip, like a million different ways. And Gibbs is a bit of a hard ass, definitely not the same as mom and dad, but he's cool. Took some getting used to though, but he's cool," Amelia had begun rambling, not giving Matt time to speak, but when she stopped she noticed that he looked rather angry, "What's your problem?" she asked.

"I can't believe you would do that," he said accusingly. Amelia was confused,

"Do what?" she asked.

"Forget about mom and dad, replace them like that. You're talking about these people like they are the best thing ever and you're completely forgetting about mom and dad! I can't believe you would disgrace their memories like that!" he was yelling now and Amelia could feel tears welling up in her eyes as his words hit her,

"You're such an ass!" she screamed at him, "I would never just forget about them Matt! They were my parents! They may not have been around all that much, but they're the people who raised me! They taught me everything I know! I'm not just forgetting about them!"

"Well obviously you are, the way you talk about these people! How can you be so selfish! Do you even miss them?"

"You don't know what you're talking about! I miss them more than anything and every day it hurts! It hurts to know that they're not coming back and I'm not going to see mom again or hear her reminding me that I need to act appropriately in case anyone sees. Or dad yelling at me because he thinks my clothes are too short or too tight. I miss all those stupid events they dragged me too! But they're gone Matt, and there's nothing I can do about it! They would want me to move on and be happy! Not sit around and drink and get high like you are obviously doing!" she finished yelling and took a deep breath, expecting him to yell right back. She was surprised when he simply turned around and started walking away, "Where are you going?" she asked, sounding annoyed. He ignored her and climbed in his car, turning on the engine and peeling out of the parking lot, neither one of them seeing the NCIS agent standing by his car only a few feet away.

As she stood there watching his car disappear around the corner she realized that her face was wet. Wiping her hands down her cheeks she realized that she was crying. Hearing someone call her name she quickly wiped the rest of the tears from her eyes and forced herself to stop crying as she turned around.

"Tony," she said, sounding shocked to see him, "What are you doing here?"

"Gibbs is in a meeting, asked me to pick you up. Is everything ok?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"Sure," she snapped, moving past him and towards the car, trying to avoid the conversation Tony obviously wanted to have.

"Who were you talking to just now?" he asked.

"My brother." Tony considered asking her more questions, trying to get her to tell him what happened, but decided to just cut straight to the point,

"I heard you guys yelling at each other," he told her. Amelia was quiet as Tony started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. He thought she was ignoring him until he looked over and saw she had tears streaming down her face. "Oh Amelia, I'm sorry," he said, feeling he was the one responsible for her tears.

"It's not your fault," she mumbled, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well he shouldn't have said those things to you, it wasn't fair."

"He's not even going to remember he saw me," she said quietly, not meaning for Tony to hear.

"Why isn't he going to remember?" Tony asked worriedly. Amelia looked at him, clearly surprised he had heard her,

"No reason," she said vaguely.

"Amelia," he said doubtfully, knowing she was lying, "Why won't he remember he saw you?"

"Don't worry about it!" she snapped. Tony watched the teenager as he drove, Gibbs had told him that she had a brother and Amelia had mentioned him before, but he suddenly remembered something Gibbs had told him. That Amelia's brother had a problem with drug and alcohol abuse and was frequently getting high or drunk. Suddenly Amelia's statement made sense.

"He was drunk wasn't he?" Tony asked. Amelia turned her head quickly to look at him,

"How do you know that?" she asked before realizing that she simply confirmed Tony's question without actually answering.

"I know what it looks like when someone is drunk Amelia. I've been there before."

"Whatever, he's fine."

"He's not fine if he's getting drunk in the middle of the day."

"Why don't you just mind your own business?"

"Excuse me?" he asked, taken aback by her attitude towards him.

"You heard me! Stop asking about him! And don't you dare tell Gibbs what happened today! He doesn't need to know!" Rather than argue with the teenager he simply agreed,

"Ok, fine I won't tell Gibbs, calm down," he said, figuring as soon as he saw Gibbs, and Amelia wasn't around he would share what happened today.

"Good."

He didn't necessarily mean to be ratting Amelia out, but if her brother was showing up drunk or possibly high then he could be putting Amelia in danger. Even if she didn't physically get hurt the words he said to her today had to have been heartbreaking, it was tough to even listen to so he was sure it must have hurt Amelia even more. He had been impressed by how she had stood up to him and held her ground though, it was obvious she had done it before and he didn't want her to have to do it again. He had developed a likeness of the teenager and didn't want to see anyone hurting her.

When he parked the car at NCIS Amelia jumped out and ran into the building ahead of him, managing to catch the elevator and close the doors before he could get inside. Realizing that the numbers on that elevator were going down he figured she was probably on her way to see Abby or Ducky. And right now, he definitely did not mind letting her go spend time with the others when she seemed to be in such a bad mood. Taking the next elevator he made his way up to the squad room where Ziva and Tim were sitting, Gibbs was still gone.

"Gibbs still in his meeting?" Tony asked as he put his stuff down at his desk. Ziva answered,

"Yes, but he should be done soon," she said, checking the time on her computer.

"Weren't you supposed to go pick up Amelia?" Tim asked, confused as to why Tony walked into the room alone. Before Tony could answer he felt a presence behind him,

"You didn't forget my daughter did you DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked as he walked to his own desk.

"No boss," he said quickly, "As soon as we got here she went downstairs. Not sure if she's with Abby or Ducky, but she's safe down there, so I let her be. Can I talk to you for a minute?" he motioned towards the alcove under the stairs. Gibbs stood up and walked over with Tony following him,

"What's up Tony?" Gibbs asked impatiently. He was tired after his long meeting with SecNav and did not want to deal with his senior agents antics right now.

"When I got to the school today to pick Amelia up she was standing there arguing with some guy. They were full on yelling, I could hear everything they were saying from the parking lot. Turns out the guy was her brother. But boss, you should have heard the things he said to her, she was in tears by the time he left." Gibbs was suddenly very concerned,

"What was he saying to her?" he asked worriedly.

"He told her that she was forgetting about their parents and disrespecting their memories. And she shouldn't like it here so much because it wasn't New York. All kinds of stuff like that. But Gibbs, she told me he was drunk. She basically demanded that I not tell you that he was even here, I told her I wouldn't just to calm her down, but obviously I couldn't keep this from you."

"You're right, thanks for telling me Tony. This isn't good at all. Matt can't be showing up here while he is drunk and start yelling at Amelia. It's not good for her, especially if he is saying stuff like that. I'm going to talk to Amelia; you said she went downstairs right?" Tony nodded and watched as Gibbs headed for the elevator.

Once she had entered the building Amelia pressed the down button, not wanting to be around the people who were going to question her about why she was in a bad mood. She knew that she would not be able to tolerate Abby's perkiness right now so she made her way onto autopsy. She also knew that Duck would be able to tell that she was in a bad mood but was hoping that he would just leave it alone.

When she walked into autopsy she was happy to see the Jimmy Palmer was currently not there. She honestly liked the ME's assistant but the less people she saw right now the better. Ducky looked at her when she walked in,

"My dear, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"You can tell something's wrong already? I just walked in. I hadn't even said anything yet," she said, shocked that he could read her so easily.

"You look worried," he told her simply, leading her to one of the chairs.

"I don't want to talk about it right now," she said.

"That's ok, you don't have to. How about a cup of tea," he offered. Amelia had never really liked tea until she began spending time with Ducky and it was all he really offered. Now, after a few weeks, she found that it helped calm her down when she was stressed,

"Yes please." Ducky set about making the tea and as she had hoped he began telling one of his many stories. Amelia loved listening to the different stories Ducky had and Ducky loved telling them. Normally he didn't mind if someone cut one of his stories short but Amelia never interrupted him and always enjoyed hearing what he had to say. Sometimes she did her homework while he talked and he didn't mind at all. Today though she sat with her legs curled into her chest, cuddling her cup of tea on her knees while she listened. He purposely picked a story that he knew would make her laugh and soon enough he saw a smile spread across her face. He had just finished his story when Gibbs walked through the sliding doors.

"What's so funny?" he asked, smiling inside when he saw the smile on his daughters face. He was afraid he was going to find her moping around and was happy to see that she seemed ok, on the surface at least.

"Ducky was telling me a story," she said simply. Gibbs nodded, thankful that his friend seemed to care about his daughter enough to try and make her feel better.

"Why don't we go for a walk?" he asked Amelia, making it more of an order than a suggestion. Amelia starred at him, trying to figure out what he was up to, but when she couldn't figure it out she stood up from her chair and placed her cup on the desk.

"OK. Thanks for the tea Ducky. I enjoyed the story," she said as she slipped her coat on and put her backpack over her shoulder, figuring she wouldn't be back down here today and didn't want to have to make the extra trip to get it back.

"Anytime my dear, you are more than welcome." Amelia smiled at him and followed Gibbs out of the lab.

**What did you think? I was so tired while I was writing this that I was having trouble typing. So let me know if it doesn't make sense or there are any serious grammatical errors that I've missed. Thanks for reading!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Ok, so I'm super sorry, I know I suck for not updating sooner. But I had to fix my computer and that included moving EVERYTHING I had on there to another computer so that I wouldn't lose all of my files. And when I finally got that straightened out and went to write some more I couldn't access any of my stories, which freaked me out/pissed me off and so I left it alone for a few weeks. AND THEN I got really busy and was in North Carolina and didn't have my computer. SO I just finally go around to finishing this chapter and I'm sorry for making you guys wait soooo long. I hope you really like it and that everyone is still reading, it won't happen again (she says almost every time). But seriously, I will try to update more often.  
>If there is anything you can think of that you would like to see, just let me know and I will try to find a way to put it in there. <strong>

**Be warned, there is a little bit of language in this chapter, but it's only one word I think, so not a big deal, but just know that it is there.**

"So what's up?" Amelia asked as they got in the elevator, trying to figure out what Gibbs could want.

"I want to show you something," Gibbs told her vaguely as he pressed a button. The doors closed and the elevator took them up to a floor she had never been on.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he told her as he led her through a plain door and up a flight of stairs. When they reached the top they walked through another door and she came to a dead stop. They were on top of the NCIS building and she could see for miles.

"Wow," she said bluntly as she walked over to the edge, starring out at the city in one direction and the river in the other. Gibbs followed,

"I know it's not New York, but I figured you might still like it," he told her. Amelia nodded,

"I do," she said simply. As a child her mother had taken her on the roof many times, it was a special place that the two of them shared where they could be alone. When they were up there her mother wasn't worried about the next party she was throwing or the latest Upper East Side gossip. She was just a mom who wanted to spend time with her daughter. They had spent countless hours on the roof of their building, playing board games or painting nails. They had once built a giant fort across the whole roof and had even let Matt and their dad in on that one. The family had eaten dinner and then camped out on the roof for the night. As she grew older there were less bored games and more gossip on the newest middle school drama. Amelia cherished those times with her mother as the woman was usually much too busy to spend time with her or pay her much attention.

Gibbs stood back a little and watched his daughter stare out at the city in front of her. The sun was setting, casting a magical glow on everything, and he could see tears in her eyes. After a few minutes he finally spoke up,

"Tony told me that Matt was at the school today," he said. Amelia turned around quickly,

"What are you talking about? Matt wasn't at school," she said, trying to play dumb, as if she had no clue what he was talking about.

"Don't lie to me Amelia," Gibbs warned, "He also told me that he heard you guys fighting." Amelia quickly switched from playing dumb to being pissed off,

"I can't believe he would tell you that! I told him not to tell!"

"This isn't first grade Amelia. He's not going to keep a secret like that just because you tell him not to."

"Well he should," she pouted, crossing her arms around her, pulling her coat closer.

"It's a good thing he didn't keep it from me, because you obviously weren't going to tell me."

"It doesn't matter; it's not a big deal," she said dismissively.

"It is a big deal Amelia. Your brother showed up at your school, drunk, and started accusing you of not caring about your parents. How is that not a big deal?" he looked at his daughter, her chin was trembling and tears were in the corner of her eyes, but he could tell that she was refusing to cry. He was impressed and proud of how strong she was right now, a lot of people would have broken down and cried already, but she was holding it in. Not that he really wanted her to hold it in, he would much rather she let it all out than have it eating away inside of her.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said shakily.

"Well I do. So you don't have to talk, but you're going to listen. What he said, none of it is true. You are allowed to make friends here, and to enjoy spending time with the people you see on a daily basis. You aren't forgetting about your parents if you make new friends and enjoy your life. That's what they would want for you. They just want you to be happy, no matter where you are. And by doing just that you are making your parents proud. So it's ok to be happy. Smile, laugh, make friends, you're never going to forget about them, they'll always have a special place in your heart, no matter what anyone says. Understand?" Amelia simply nodded and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I don't like fighting with my brother," she said quietly after a few minutes. Gibbs nodded,

"I know. It's ok, he'll come around. He's just hurting from your parent's death and just doesn't know how to deal with it yet," he told her reassuringly. Amelia nodded again,

"Can we go? I'm kinda tired and still have homework to do." Honestly she was tired and she did have homework to finish, but really she just did not want to discuss her parents or brother anymore and that seemed like the perfect excuse.

"Sure, c'mon." Gibbs held the door open for her as she walked to the stairs, casting one more glance over her shoulder just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. They made their way back downstairs and to the car park. The ride back to the house was silent for the most part, Amelia spoke up every once in a while about something that happened during school, but never went into much detail. When they got home she refused dinner and went to her room to finish her homework before going to bed for the night.

Once Gibbs dropped Amelia off at school the next morning he went to work and had McGee trace Matt Covington's phone number. He was surprised to see that he was still in town, staying at a small hotel nearby. Deciding to take the morning off to pay his daughter's brother a visit he left Tony in charge before leaving the building. Tony had wanted to go with him and give Matt a piece of his mind for what went on yesterday, but Gibbs assured him that he would take care of it himself.

He flashed his badge when he got to the front desk and was given the room number quickly before making his way to the third floor and pounding on the door of room 315. After a few minutes of pounding the door finally opened, with Matt standing on the other side, looking very hung over, possibly even still drunk.

"What?" he asked rudely when he saw Gibbs, "I'm sleeping."

"At least you aren't yelling at your sister," Gibbs said. Matt looked at him oddly,

"What are you talking about dude?" Gibbs grimaced, trying to figure out if the young man in front of him was drunk enough to have forgotten the incident with Amelia yesterday, if it was possible he was a little high also, or if he was just still half asleep and not fully aware of everything yet. Deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt Gibbs explained,

"You met Amelia at school yesterday, started yelling at her for being happy, made her cry along the way and she's been moping around ever since," he said simply. Matt made a face,

"Hey, you know what, she deserved it. She's moving on and forgetting everyone else who has always been there for her, her whole damn life. She needed a reminder so I gave it to her. She'll get over it eventually," he answered angrily. Upon hearing him speak more Gibbs decided that he truly was drunk and no longer deserved the benefit of the doubt. Gibbs stepped closer and lowered his voice to a threatening tone,

"Listen here," he started, "You are not going to come around Amelia when you are drunk or high on drugs. You obviously can't control your emotions and I'm not going to have my daughter be exposed to that. If you want to see her or talk to her you can call me first and I will decide if you will be allowed, but I will not have you yelling at her like that and hurting her again. She has been through enough hurt lately and does not need more pain piled on top," Gibbs looked past him, into the hotel room and saw probably twenty beer bottles laying around along with several empty bottles of some kind of liquor, "You need to get your drinking under control and take responsibility before you put yourself or my daughter in danger or I'm not going to allow you to talk to her. I suggest you get to working on that. I don't want to keep her from seeing you, but I will if it keeps her safe." Without waiting for an answer Gibbs turned and walked back towards the elevator. As the doors slid shut he heard a loud scream and glass shattering against a wall.

Once he left the hotel Gibbs made his way back to NCIS slowly. He was still angry at Matt and did not want to take it out on his team. After driving around aimlessly for about twenty minutes he finally pointed his car in the direction of NCIS, feeling calm enough to go back to work and not kill his agents. As soon as he stepped off the elevator Tony started asking him questions,

"How'd it go boss?"

"Went fine DiNozzo, as fine as it can when you're talking to a drunken man."

"He was still drunk?" Tony asked disbelievingly, "He's not going to go find Amelia again is he?"

"He better not. I told him not to come around again until he had his drinking under control. I can't have Amelia exposed to that, it's not good for her." It was rare that Gibbs explained his actions to his team, but he felt that he needed to share this information with the three agents sitting at their desks, listening carefully. After all, if they all knew it was much more likely that they would be watching out for Amelia and be able to keep her safe, though they were very good at doing that already.

"Good, he doesn't deserve to see her if he's going to be a bastard," Tony said hatefully. It was obvious to Gibbs that his team had come to care about his daughter greatly in the short time she had been with him and it made him happy to know she had people he could trust looking out for her. Gibbs simply nodded and sat down at his desk, silently agreeing with Tony and his agents eventually all began working again.

The day passed slowly and Gibbs made sure to leave early to pick up Amelia, wanting to be there before she got out of school so he could make sure Matt didn't show up again. By the time the final bell rang and students started pouring out of the building Gibbs had not seen his daughter's brother and began to relax. He watched as Amelia walked out of the building with a few other people, smiling widely and laughing at something that had been said. She waved goodbye to her friends and started walking over to the car,

"Gibbs, guess what?" she said before he could even say anything to her.

"What?" he asked, completely unsure of what she wanted him to guess.

"I'm going to join the cross country team!" she told him excitedly, then hastily added, "If that's ok with you, of course." Gibbs smiled,

"Of course that's ok with me. I think it will be great for you to have an activity to do, and you will definitely be good at it. As long as your grades don't slip I have no problem with you joining cross country."

"Awesome! My grades won't slip, I swear! I have some papers for you to sign in my backpack and we have practices like every day after school, so you won't have to pick me up until later. And we have meets during the week and on the weekends, but you don't have to come to those since you have to work so much, I can just get a ride from someone else. My friend Riley is doing it also and she said her mom could drive us, and she gets her license soon, so she will be able to drive us by herself! It's going to be so great! The coach says I have a lot of potential and that he sees me doing great things! Can you believe that, he thinks I'm going to do great things! Of course I am though, I mean, I am pretty awesome so all of my actions must be great. Even the stupid ones, those are great in their own way!"

Gibbs starred at his daughter highly amused as she continued to ramble all the way to NCIS, never getting a word in until she stopped to talk to the security guard, Nick, who scanned her bag every day.

"How was your day?" he was finally able to ask as she waved to Nick.

"It was awesome! We did this really cool experiment in Chemistry today! Can I go see Abby? I want to tell her about it!" Gibbs nodded and she instantly took off for the stairs rather than the elevator. He shook his head slightly as he made his way to the bullpen, his daughter sure is something.

Amelia practically sprinted down the stairs and quickly burst into Abby's lab. Abby spun around when she heard the door open,

"Mia!" she said happily upon seeing the teenager. She had taken to calling Amelia by her nickname not long after she arrived and Amelia did not seem to mind at all.

"Abby! I have to show you what we did in school today! It was the coolest thing ever!"

"Ok!" Abby replied excitedly, she had no clue what had Amelia in such a good mood today, especially after what she had been told had happened yesterday, but she was not going to do anything to ruin it. She watched as Amelia recreated the experiment she had done in chemistry today. It was a fairly advanced experiment and Abby was a little surprised they were allowed to do it in a school setting but Amelia assured her that only the honors class was allowed to complete the experiment.

"You really like science, don't you?" Abby asked as she helped Amelia clean up. Amelia nodded,

"Yeah, it's my favorite class. And I'm really good at it, so it's easy, which is awesome!"

"Do you think you want to do some kind of job with science when you get older?" Amelia shrugged,

"Maybe, I've thought about it. My mom wanted nothing more than for me to become some trophy wife like she was, but she knew that was never going to happen. My dad always told her I had too much potential. Of course, he wanted me to be a lawyer, just like him. But it's not something I'm interested in as a career. I think I would really like to be a doctor though. My friend Jamie, her mom is a doctor and we got to shadow her at work one day; it was the coolest thing ever! She got to help so many people and I think I would like to be able to do that. So that's kind of science-y," Amelia finally finished.

"It is science-y," Abby agreed, using Amelia's made up word, "and I think you would be a very good doctor."

"Thanks Abby," Amelia said smiling. She was quiet for only a moment before she began telling Abby how she was joining cross country, which prompted another rambling session from the fifteen year old. It was shocking how much the teenager was like the Goth scientist when it came to their rambling. Amelia sure gave Abby a run for her money and no one wanted to get both of them going about something at the same time because at that point there was almost no way to get them to stop talking and whoever got stuck with them had to stand around for a while until they wore themselves out, which didn't happen very quickly.

For the next few hours Amelia hung out in Abby's lab doing her homework and watching Abby run evidence for an old case. Eventually Gibbs came down to the lab and told her it was time to go. She packed her backpack and followed him out of the lab, telling him about redoing the experiment with Abby.

By the time they got home Gibbs was more than happy when Amelia decided to go take a shower before dinner. He loved his daughter to no end, but her rambling wore him out and she had been right on point today, hardly even stopping to breathe let alone allow Gibbs to get a word in. Knowing his daughter would be in the shower for quite a while he ordered take out for dinner then made his way to the basement to work on his boat.

Thirty minute later he heard the doorbell ring and footsteps on the stairs. He came up out of the basement right as Amelia was opening the door. On the other side stood a young teenage boy holding several boxes filled with various Chinese food.

"Oh thank God, I'm starving!" Amelia said gratefully, quickly taking the food out of the young boys hands, "You go to my school, don't you?" she asked curiously. The boy nodded but didn't say anything. Amelia continued, "I thought you looked familiar, I don't think we have any classes together though, right?"

"No," the boy said shortly.

"Oh, I didn't think so. But it's a big school and I'm new, so I'm still getting used to everything. Well my name is Amelia," she said, being friendly.

"I'm Adam," he told her, a slight smile crossing his face.

"It's nice to officially meet you Adam; maybe we will see each other at school sometime. Thanks for the food," Amelia smiled and moved out of the way for Gibbs to pay him. She said goodbye before he left then went into the kitchen.

"So he goes to your school?" Gibbs asked conversationally as he filled a plate with food.

"Yeah, I think he is in the grade above me though, since I don't have any classes with him. He's kind of a loner though, hangs out alone in the library a lot. I've seen him there when I'm studying during lunch."

"He seemed nice enough." Amelia shrugged,

"Sure, I don't really know him, but you're right, he always seemed pretty nice" She said, choosing to see the good in someone she didn't know rather than judge him and assume he was a loser or something because he chose to hang out alone. They finished dinner quickly and Amelia then went to bed, wanting to be well rested for her first day of cross country practice the next day.

Gibbs picked Amelia up the next day a few hours after he normally would and found his daughter sitting on the steps with a few other people. She quickly said goodbye to the kids and got in the car, taking a drink of the bottle of water in her hands.

"How did it go?"

"It was good. Coach Sam is right, I'm going to do great things," she said cockily. Gibbs laughed and rolled his eyes and they pulled out of the parking lot. When they got home Amelia went on inside while Gibbs checked the mail, sorting through it as he walked through the yard. He stopped when he came upon an envelope in between a clump of ads and the electric bill. It was addressed to his daughter, but what made him stop was the fact that the name on the return address was her brother. He quickly shoved it in the stack of ads and made sure Amelia would not happen to see it if she walked by. It wasn't that he was trying to steal his daughter's mail, but that he was not sure what Matt would have written in this letter and did not want Amelia to read it and have it upset her. Instead he would set it aside and make sure to read it after he knew his daughter was sound asleep. He finally went inside and the two began their evening routine of homework and dinner, Amelia oblivious of the letter waiting to be read.

**So how was it? PLEASE REVIEW! I would love to know what you thought of the chapter and what you think should happen from here!**


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